A Visitor From Another Land
by The Ghost without Romance
Summary: David was what most of the real world considered a technological genius. One day he created the I.D.T., and accidentally found himself in the world of Pokemon with no way back. Or is there? Can David get back? Does he even want to? -Massive editing likely- This story contains: Advanceshipping, an OC and some possible, accidental OOC -Rated T for Language, Violence, and Some Themes
1. The Meeting

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Chapter One – Prologue

A man sat inside of a laboratory at a computer. He was a younger man, around the age of 19-23, based on appearance, and was shorter than the average height for his age and had short, shaggy, brown hair. He sat slightly hunched over, like he did normally when he sat, looking at a computer monitor, he analyzed the data as he scrolled down the screen. The laboratory he was in was a one story, basement level room under a house that a slightly wealthier than average man would own, considerably smaller than a manor, but slightly bigger than a suburban home. But back to the lab; it was well furbished with machines and technology that the man had purchased himself. The room was rather large, for a basement, and well lit. There were many machines and a few glass containers that contained strange liquids of many different colors. There were machines of different sizes paced around the room in convenient places, as they were intended to be easily accessible. A little ways to the right and in front of the man was a large machine that resembled a large, circular like door way, with other large rectangular machines connected to the ring/door like structure.

"Finally," The man said. "My work is almost complete." He said this to himself, since there was no one else in the room, as he most often did when he was alone. It was a bad habit that often occurred, he preferred to break the silence every now and then with his own voice, even if it did seem weird.

"Soon the I.D.T. 2046 will be ready to be shown to the world. Perhaps it is time to test it with myself."

He had tested the machine several times before with both organic and inorganic objects. All of which being successful, he was fully confident it would work if he tried it on himself.

"Power level full, reactor stable, space-time splitter synced. Powering up now." He said.

The machine began to start up, making a low 'vroom' sound. A strange energy began to fill the ring structure, making a portal. The man stood from the computer smiling to himself and began to walk towards the energy. As he stepped into the energy he felt a warm feeling wash over him. A voice emitted from his computer.

"Systems analyzing… object confirmed, human being, gender: male. Beginning startup. _5% _complete."

The man thought about the situation, he was finally going to do it. After 4 years of tinkering, building, planning, late-nights, and problem solving. He was finally going to do it. He thought about the events that lead to this. Graduating at the College of Scientific Advancement and getting a job with some of the most recognized scientists in the country; he quickly jumped up to be a greater scientist than all of them, stunning the scientific community. After achieving a small fortune for his genius, which he desperately tried to turn down, he donated most to charity, but that still left him with a considerable amount of wealth. He then decided to devote everything to inventing something for the greater good of the community of all of mankind. That led to spending funds for the laboratory he was currently in and all of the technology in it, as well as it leading to months of research and planning, and then finally development. This took up the remainder of the 2 years he had set out to accomplish his task in and it took an additional year to get his device to work and then the final year was trial and error and testing. But it was all worth it in the long run, all those events leading up to this moment.

"Startup complete. Initiating system launch sequence." The voice cut in. "Launch sequence 36% complete."

"Alright," The man said. "This is it."

"System launch sequence 59% complete."

The man began to hum to himself.

"System launch sequence 80% complete."

"_Oh right," The man thought. "I almost forgot the return device."_

As he went to grab the return device he was paralyzed to the spot, unable to move.

"System launch sequence 100% complete. Inter-dimensional- Transfer initiated."

"Wait! Abort! Cancel!" The man shouted.

"Unable to comply, system sequence unable to be aborted." The voice replied.

"Execute emergency code _'Flashstop' _priority code: alpha, serial code 25768913477!" The man exclaimed knowing what would happen if the code failed. After what felt like eternity the voice replied.

"Unable to activate. Malfunction. Security error: 7069. Press any key to continue…"

"Nooooooo!"

He was sucked into the tunnel; blue, green and purple energy spiraled around in the wormhole he was in. He floated through fearing the worst, wondering where he would end up. He had saved several dimensions for visit but, thinking he would have the return device with him, didn't specify which one he would travel to. He was worried about the mentioned malfunction the machine had, and he hoped that he would end up in one of the more pleasant dimensions he had saved, in contrast to the more violent and dangerous ones he had. As he neared the end of the tunnel he saw a bright light. He blinked and in the flash he found himself in a world, as well as a considerable height in the air. He then did the most logical thing, he screamed.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!"While he was screaming he noticed his voice seemed higher than it normally was. He also noticed the fast coming ground. He saw a small figure on the ground and realized he was going to collide. Suddenly he saw a figure appear in front of him, moving at an extremely fast pace. As he collided with the figure he felt the air knocked out of him, and heard the sickening sound of several things breaking and the last thing he heard was…

"Ow, What the hell!?" right before he slipped unconscious.


	2. Getting Familiar

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Chapter Two - The Meeting

"Oh man my head." The man said. "Ugh where am I?" He added, opening his eyes.

He then began to take in his surroundings. He was in a fairly average sized room and from the looks of it, a living room. There was a doorway that led to a kitchen, one that led outside and a staircase that obviously led upstairs; there were bookshelves, a coffee table and a few other comfy chairs. He was lying on a sofa with a blanket covering him and there was a wet cloth on his forehead. There were also bandages on the right side of his chest were he felt a dull pain, he also had a few bandages on his head.

"_Okay seriously where am I? This isn't my house." He thought._

Then he heard footsteps from the kitchen doorway.

"Oh good your finally awake" he heard a female voice. "Everyone come here, He's awake!"

He saw many people come into the room. Due to his head injury he couldn't quite make out what they looked like.

"Nice to see your doing well" said a male voice.

"Yeah good thing Blaziken helped slow your fall or you could have been seriously hurt" a voice came from another.

"_Ugh I have no idea where I am" he thought. "Wait, could I be in… No, there is no way I'd be that lucky."_

"Who are you all? Where am I? What's a Blaziken?" he asked, once again noticing his higher voice.

"What's a Blaziken!?" came the sound of a young kid.

"Calm down Max, he's been through a lot, let's answer his questions" came another female voice. "Sorry May" Max said.

"Well I'll answer your questions then" said the first male voice. "I'm Brock, this is May, this is Max and that's Ash and Ash's Mom."

"Yeah nice to meet you, as to where you are, you're at my house" said Ash. "But not to be rude, how do you not know what a Blaziken is? Most people know a lot of the more common Pokémon."

"_Pokémon!?" The man once thought again. "So I am here."_

"Here is your bag, young man" said Ash's Mom in a stern yet kind voice. "You should hold on to it better, it landed on my poor Ash's head."

"_Bag?" he thought._

"Oh right. By the way my name is David Ghost Heathernson." He said remembering his manners.

He also remembered that whenever an organic object went through his device, a backpack with necessary supplies automatically went too.

"Sorry Miss…?" he asked.

"Oh, my name is Delia" said Delia.

"Right sorry Miss Delia" He then remembered her words "young man".

"Could I perhaps see a mirror from someone?" he asked.

"Sure I have one" May said.

As he looked into the mirror he was shocked at what he saw.

"Ahhh!" he shouted.

Inside the mirror was the face of a sixteen year old young man who looked just like him.

"What? What is it?" May asked.

"I'm… I'm…" he broke off.

**(A/N: From here on it will be David's POV. For now…)**

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**David's POV**

"_What's happened to me? I'm sixteen again." I thought. "This is weird." Realizing everyone was staring at me I said…_

"Oh uh nothing is wrong j-just a headache ehehe." I answered.

"Would you like some painkillers?" Delia asked.

"No I'm fine it's gone now." I replied.

"Oh, okay then." Delia said. "Are you hungry Mister Heathernson?"

"Please, call me David" I said. "Mister Heathernson was my Grandfather, but yes I am quite hungry." "But please after you" I said kindly.

"Oh such a gentleman" Delia replied.

"Thank you, I try" I said.

_As we walked into the dining room I noticed a large amount of delicious looking food on the table._

"Wow," I said as we sat down. "Such culinary wonder must have taken ages."

"Oh thank you, but it took no time at all." Delia said. "If you don't mind me asking, where are you from David? You don't seem to be from around here. I don't remember seeing you before."

"Oh um… I'm f-from the… Hoenn region." I said thinking quickly and saying the first place that came to mind.

"Really?" Brock said with a suspicious look in his tiny eyes. "From what town?"

"Oh um you s-see I'm from Slateport City." I said as nonchalantly as I could; which was horrible.

"Oh okay" Brock said seeming satisfied.

"Slateport huh? I remember that place." Ash said. "Oh by the way why were you falling from the sky?" asked Ash.

"Oh uh… you see I was uh…" Once again caught off guard. "This wild giant bird Pokémon had taken my bag and as I tried to get it back, it took off bringing me along with it," I said.

"Oh" Ash said. "Why did it take your bag?"

"It must have smelled my supplies. I have lots of berries," I said.

"What kinds of berries?" asked Max.

"Mostly ones from the Hoenn region" I said, fabricating everything as fast as I could. "I never thanked you all for saving me. Whose Blaziken is it?" I asked knowing full well whose it was but I had to play the part.

"_How can I tell them I'm from another dimension that believes that none of this is real?" I thought to myself._

"Actually it's mine," said May.

"Ah, well I must say it is a fine Blaziken. You have raised it well." I said.

"Oh well t-thank you." She said slightly blushing.

"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to embarrass you. I was just trying to compliment you. In fact may I witness the rest of your Pokémon?" I asked. "Miss Ketchum where would you like me to put the dishes?" I added referring to the large amount of dishes I had ate upon.

"I'll take care of them David. You know you eat just as much as Ash." Delia said.

"Yeah," said Brock. "I thought the only one who ate as much as Ash was May."

"I'm sorry guys I hope I didn't leave you all will too little to eat." I said a little ashamed at my eating habit.

"Not at all David, between Ash and May I make plenty of food for everyone." said Delia. "Ash why don't you take David to Oak's ranch?"

"Professor Oak? So I am in Pallet Town?" I asked.

"Yup my hometown" said Ash.

"Really?" I said. "So where is everyone else from, if I may ask?"

"Well I'm from Pewter City," said Brock.

"And we're from Petalburg City in the Hoenn region." said Max.

"Petalburg huh? I have visited that ton before." I said.

"Hey guys c'mon lets go to Professor Oak's!" shouted Ash.

"Alright" I said as I gathered my things and we headed down the road to the ranch.

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**Chapter 2 is done. I would have got it up sooner but I was lazy. Plus I was a little disheartened by how so few people looked at my first chapter. But I can't let that get my down. I would still like people to review. Plus constructive criticism is always helpful and I'd like to see what you few who are reading it think. Also since I forgot to mention it in the summary this is an advanceshipping story so there will be romance between Ash and May, but you will have to read on for that.**


	3. Meeting Professor Oak

**So I looked at my reviews for the story and I must say that they made me happy. I appreciate the reviews I received and would love more. I've also decided on replying to the reviews via story after notes. And thanks ****Dzchan94**** for your review. I tried to space it out but that made it really spread out. I did change the style of the thoughts and actions so I hope this change is better. I hope you keep reading on. Oh and here's a disclaimer for you all. Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon; it belongs to Nintendo and GameFreak.**

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Chapter 3 – Meeting Professor Oak

"So David are you some kind of scientist?" May asked noticing my lab coat which was now in tatters from the trees that I fell through.

"Well you see I used to be a scientist but then I took a…" "…I took a leave" I said finally.

**(A/N: No there was not going to be a Skyrim knee joke.)**

"Really?! But you're just as old as us!" May said.

"Well you see I managed to certify at a scientific college for my intelligence" I explained.

"Wow so what kind of stuff did you do?" Ash asked.

"Well you see I used to experiment with Interplanal Dimension Travelling." I said. "I also studied a lot about Pokémon."

"Well I don't understand the first thing you said but the Pokémon study sounds like Professor Oak's work." Ash stated.

_I just dropped my head my head and sighed. I looked over and noticed May had done the same thing. _

"Ah well you see basically I studied travelling from one dimension to another. As for the Pokémon study you're correct, I study just like Professor Oak."

"Oh, ok I guess I understand about the Dimension thing. But was it ever successful?" Ash asked.

"No it never worked it was a complete failure!" I shouted quickly.

"_Maybe a little too quickly" I thought to myself. I looked at them both nervously. May had a questioning look, but Ash seemed like he hadn't noticed. _

"Ah well so Ash how are you doing with you know battles and things?" I asked trying to change the subject. To my relief it worked.

"It's going great I just completed the Battle Frontier!" Ash shouted.

"Really? I've heard about the Battle Frontier. I hear it's quite the challenge." I replied.

"Yeah it is! Brandon was by far the toughest of the Frontier Brains! With those Regi pokémon of his." Ash said.

"Pika pika" Pikachu put in.

"Hmm indeed." I stated.

"Hey guys I think we're here!" May shouted.

_I looked over and saw Professor Oak's Ranch. Yup right there, just as expected. I figured we would have got there sooner though. "This place is quite advanced" I thought as we got to the door._

"Hey Professor Oak! Are you here?" Ash shouted as we walked through the door.

"Wouldn't have been more polite to simply look for him? …or knock?" I asked Ash.

"Naw I've known Professor Oak since the start of my journey" Ash simply stated. "I'm sure he won't mind. Right Pikachu?"

"Pika!" Pikachu said.

"Ah Ash great to see you again and May too! How are you?" Professor Oak said, greeting us.

"We're fine Professor." Ash and May said in unison.

_May looked over at Ash and got slightly red in the face._ _I looked at them and raised an eyebrow._

"So who's your friend here?" the professor asked. "Are you a boy or a girl?"

_I stood there and frowned._

"Hahaha Professor, this is David, a friend I meet recently. It's actually quite the story." Ash said joyfully.

"It's nice to meet you Professor I've heard a lot about you. You invented the Pokedex right?" I asked.

"Why yes I did." Oak said.

"Well in that case I have something to ask you, can I have a Pokedex of my own?"

"Well sure but may I ask what for, you don't seem to be a trainer. In fact you seem more suited to a lab judging by your appearance."

"Yes I do look like I belong in a lab and in fact I was a scientist but it has always been my dream to be a Pokémon Trainer!" I said with fire in my eyes and my heart.** (A/N: True story.)**

"My, such determination. I haven't seen so much since… well since Ash here.""Wahh?" Ash said confused.

"Heh I guess I might of got a little carried away…" I said sheepishly.

"But first, seriously, are you a boy are a girl?" He asked.

I'm a boy." I said frowning again.

"Well then here is your Pokedex, David." Oak said.

"Yes!" I shouted. "Oh by the way Professor I must say, I'm quite the tinkerer, you won't mind if I make a few alterations do you?"

"Hmm I guess not, in fact if you happen to find a way to improve it just let me know. Or if you happen to do something that causes it to stop working entirely, just send it back to me if you can't figure out how to get it working." Oak said.

"Wow it looks just like ours! Except it's a dark blue color!" May exclaimed. **(A/N: I can't really describe the look of it. If you don't know what it looks like, watch a few of the anime episodes or Google it.)**

"It won't look the same when I'm done with it." I said in a jokingly, eerie voice.

"Hey David, want to see all the Pokémon a have?" asked Ash.

"That sounds like a great idea." I said.

"Tracy should be able to show you the other Pokémon that are at the ranch too. He's already out there, feeding the Pokémon." Oak advised.

"Alright let's go guys!" Ash yelled.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu also shouted.

"One second guys." I said.

_I took off my backpack and opened it. Inside were a few books plus some instant ramen, which reminded me of the rough college life, a few clothes, a dirty Pokeball and my favorite zip-up hoody. "Wait, a Pokeball? That's strange. But I'll worry about later." I thought as I took out the hoody. It was a brown-grey zip-up hoody and had the strings for adjusting the hood, two pockets, one on each side of the zipper and a fur like cloth on the inside. The ends of the sleeves were torn slightly from wear and tear. Unzipping the hoody, and taking off the now tattered lab coat, I put on the hoody. I also took out a kind-of belt-sash. Taking the belt, I clipped on the lone pokeball and then put on the belt. It was worn around my waist at sort of an angle to make one side more accessible. I then put the lab coat inside my bag and also clipped the Pokedex to my belt. Closing up my bag and putting it back on, I then rejoined Ash, May and Pikachu outside in the lab's Pokémon preserve area._

"Wow David nice hoody" Ash said.

"It looks kind of old though" May added.

"Well it is old" I said. "I've had this hoody for a long time. But now, may I see your Pokémon? I could start on this Pokedex."

"Sure why not" Ash said.

_He then threw 5 Pokeballs into the air, out of them came Sceptile, Swellow, Corphish, Torkoal and Glalie. May then threw her's and out came Blaziken, Beautifly, Eevee, Skitty, Venasuar, and Wartortle. I recorded them all in the Pokedex and turned to Ash._

"Is it ok if I record Pikachu inside my Pokedex? It looks like the strongest Pikachu I've seen." I asked.

"Pika pi pikachu!" Pikachu said proudly.

"Hey buddy easy now" Ash said. "I guess its okay. How about it Pikachu?"

"Pika" Pikachu replied jumping down from Ash's shoulder.

_I then recorded Pikachu's data inside the Pokedex._

"Thanks guys" I said once it finished.

"Alright" Ash said. "Let's find Tracey."

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**Thank you Dzchan94 and Itssupereffective for reviewing. If only more people did review as well. Ok guys so I know this chapter took a while to upload and to be honest I feel the need to apologize for it. I was really not thinking much of the story and being lazy about it. I didn't write much at all. While making those of your who actually wanted to read it wait. Though some, or maybe all of you, had other stories you could read. I still feel the need to apologize. I know the feeling of waiting for a new chapter to be posted. I know that writing takes time but for me, taking a few weeks to write a thousand word chapter has no excuse for it. Neither does being a being a beginner. All beginners worked hard daily to be good so why should I slack off at it? So I'm going to try and write more often and post more chapters. Okay guys so here's to those goals! So you at the next chapter.**


	4. Feeling and Suspicion

**-Alright guys here we are at chapter four. I'm still working out the kinks in my writing, such as character speech and thoughts but it seems to be improving thanks to helpful feedback so let's try it out some more shall we? I don't feel like adding a disclaimer, but it seems really unnecessary. I mean could it really be interpreted that I own Pokémon? I if I did I wouldn't be here after all. Well maybe I would, who knows? I could be one of those people who likes to read fan made things about something he made. Plus there are a lot of awesome stories on here anyway. Alright let me not bore you, on to the chapter!**

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Chapter 4 – Feeling and Suspicion

"Alright let's see… Tracy should be out here somewhere… Aha there he is! C'mon guys!" Ash shouted running to Tracy.

"Uhh" May gave a sigh. "There goes Ash, always in a hurry everywhere." "Sometimes I wish he would just slow down a little."

"Heh it's actually quite humorous" I said. "Moving around in a rush. Although we should probably catch up."

"Hey guys over here!" Ash shouted.

"Hey Ash, hey Tracy." I said.

_Ash, May and Tracy looked at me confused. I hesitated in saying more. "Shit," I thought. "They're probably wondering how I knew that was Tracy. Well hmm think David think." As if to put voice to my worries May asked…_

"How did you know that was Tracy, David?"

_Fuuuuuuuu I thought to myself. Wait ok they'll have to take this answer._

"Well it makes sense. I mean You, Ash, Tracy and I are the only ones out here and I know you and Ash so this is obviously Tracy."

_I stuck out my hand trying to avoid any more questions._

"Nice to meet ya." I said.

_Shit I used slang, which ALWAYS happens when I'm nervous. I start to use slang and have a hard time thinking. I wasn't nervous about Tracy, I was nervous about more questions._

"Well I guess that you're right now that I think about it" Ash said.

"Well any way nice to meet ya Tracy" I said.

_Fuck did it again._

"Nice to meet you David. Ash told me about you. He said you studied Pokémon like Professor Oak." Tracy said.

"Well I use to but I have decided that really what I want is to be a trainer. I just felt like the scholar life was to boring, but the information sure can be useful. " I said.

"I also told Tracy about your Intro DimTrision Tran sport." Ash said.

"You mean Inter-Dimensional-Transport? Why? It's not that important. After all the only real success was when I…" I broke off.

_Shit I'm doing it again. I know I'm not used to lying and I hate doing it but I thought it would be easier than this. Besides I can't tell them they would never believe me. No one ever did. Not even the people I once considered my friends. And they never will unless I can get back. But how? I forgot the remote so there is no way I can get back that way. There has to be someway though. I just have to figure it out._

"When you what David?" Tracy asked.

"Nothing, like I told Ash and May it was a failure." I said finally. "So what do you do Tracy?" I asked.

"Well I like to sketch pokémon; I also help the professor around the lab with the pokémon tasks, like feeding them."

"That's really great" I said. "Being around so many pokémon. Oh that reminds me, Professor Oak gave me a Pokedex. So I was wondering if I could scan the pokémon. "

"Oh not at all. Luckily they're all right here eating, which is usually the only time they're all in one place. So you don't have to search the entire ranch." Tracy replied.

"Wonderful!" I shouted.

_I unclipped the Pokedex and began to scan the pokémon. After about ten minutes I was done. I then noticed the sun was going down._

"Well it appears to be getting late" I said. "So I should probably find somewhere to sleep. I guess I'll see you all later."

_I began to walk away, wondering about where to sleep._

"Hey wait David!" Ash called after me. "Why not stay at my place?"

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah Mom won't mind at all, besides you are injured." Ash said.

_I suddenly remembered my injuries. And became aware of the dull pain in my ribs._

"Well I guess with all that was going on I forgot about them haha." I laughed a little.

_So we began to walk back to Ash's house, down the long dirt road. I still wonder how it took as so long to get there the first time. Because this time it seemed to take no time at all. We reached the front door; Ash opened it._

"We're back!" he shouted.

_Ash's mom walked out from the kitchen, Brock and Max were sitting in the living room._

"Oh good you're back" Brock said. "It was getting late so we were a little worried."

"Yeah you guys were taking forever." Max said.

"Well David was looking at the pokémon. Oh and he also got a Pokedex" Ash said.

"Wow that's so cool!" Max exclaimed.

_I reached for the Pokedex to show it to Max when I knocked the lone pokeball of my belt. Crap I thought as it hit the ground. Luckily it didn't open. There was no way to tell for certain what was inside but I had a pretty good Idea. And the last thing he needed was to unexpectedly appear in front of a group of strangers._

"Hey David I didn't know you had a pokeball." Brock said.

_Damn, you know for eyes that were only slits he was pretty observant._

"Heh yeah I found it in my bag. It surprised me when I found it. I think it somehow was left in my bag when I left the Hoenn region." I said.

_Great more lies. How are they supposed to believe it was magically put in my bag when I arrived here?_

"Right ok" Brock said with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

_Geez this guy was all over my case. He seems to find me strange. I don't know what I'm going to do if he starts asking questions. Hopefully that doesn't happen soon. I never thought that Brock could be this suspicious. Must be all those encounters with Team Rocket._

"You know that does seem pretty strange though. I thought you didn't have any pokémon." Ash stated.

_Oh come on now Ash too? That's a shocker. I can't catch a break. I blame Team Rocket for all of this. Actually I blame crime in general. Taking the innocence of people so anything different could be suspicious. They probably think I'm a criminal. If I were in their shoes I would think the pokeball is stolen, but if the pokémon I think is in there is actually in there, there is no way I could release him. He would go on a frenzy._

"Hey come on guys what's the matter, I thought we were helping David find a place to stay." May said unknowingly saving me from any questions I couldn't answer.

"Yeah ok" Ash said. "Hey Mom is it alright if David stays here with us. There is no Pokémon Center so…"

"Oh of course dear. We wouldn't want him outside would we?" Delia said. "Let's see… May and Max have the guest bedroom. Brock is here in the living room. So I guess you'll have to stay in with Ash in his room David."

"I guess that's ok." Ash said.

"Now Ash don't be rude." Delia said. "Of course it's alright."

"Ok David let me show you where you'll be." Ash said.

**Ash's POV –**

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_I led David up the stairs and down the hall to my room. When we got there I opened the door to my room. When we walked inside, I noticed all of the toys I had from before I was a trainer. I felt a little embarrassed. I knew I should have gotten rid of these by now, but I liked having them, they reminded me about the day I became a Trainer._

"Ok David here we are." I said.

_He looked around the room, but stopped at the bed._

"You can have the bed if you want" I said.

"Oh no it's fine I brought a sleeping bag." David said.

_He just seems like a nice guy to me. Brock may find him strange but I don't see anything._

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah go ahead it's yours anyway, I'll be fine." He said.

"But what about your injuries?" I asked.

"Ah they're nothing to bad, trust me I'll be fine."

"Well ok then." I said back. "We should probably go to sleep its late and I don't know about you but I'm kinda tired."

"Sure." David replied.

_He took off his bag and set it on the floor. He opened it and took out a sleeping bag and a pillow. I thought it was strange how he had both of those in there and the bag wasn't even huge. Plus he also had his lab coat in there. He unrolled the sleeping bag on the floor. I went over into the bathroom to change into my sleep wear. When I came back he was doing something to a Pokeball with a screwdriver. He also had a book on the floor next to him. When he saw me walk in he jumped and stashed the ball in his bag. I thought it was weird to hide a pokeball. I looked over and saw all five of mine on the shelf were I left them. Pikachu was on the bed already asleep. I crawled into my bed to lie down. Pikachu woke up briefly to crawl closer to me._

"Pika…" Pikachu said drowsily.

"Good night buddy" I said to him while scratching his head.

_He cooed slightly and went back sleep. David looked over at me and smiled._

"You two are really great friends" He said.

"Yeah Pikachu and I have been together since day one. So what's with that pokeball?" I asked hoping that he would answer. He was trying really hard to hide it. I found it weird.

"Oh um there's nothing really interesting about it. It's just a pokeball I found in my bag. Like I said, I must have left it in my bag when I left Hoenn."

_Seeing how edgy he was about it, I decided not to ask any more about it. I just hope that it isn't stolen. After a while David sighed and looked over at me._

"Ash have you ever had something that you just couldn't tell anyone because you didn't know how they would react?" He asked.

_I looked at him and thought about it._

"Well I guess there are a few things that I've had." I said.

_I thought about May and how she had been acting different around me lately. I also thought about how I keep having this weird feeling around her. All I know is I feel happy, like really happy. Happier than when I get a gym badge or catch a new pokémon. I never felt anything like it. I decided that David might know about it seeing how smart he is, so I told him about. He smiled, looked at me and said…_

"I thought that there might be something." He chuckled slightly. "Well I can tell you that I might know what you're feeling, but it's different for everyone. We should probably talk about it tomorrow as it would take so long we would never get to sleep." He said. "Well good night."

_And with that hey turned onto his side and fell asleep. I was a little frustrated at how he didn't tell me anything about this feeling but at least he knew about it and he said he would tell me. I began to yawn so I turned over and drifted off to sleep as well._

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**Species Unknown: Yes I.D.T. stands for Inter-Dimensional Transport, the wonderful device that spawned David into the Pokeverse. It was designed to transport David to any dimension that he chose be it video game or other-wise.**

**(Second Review Reply)Species Unknown: As you can see or read I guess, I tried to make a new line for new character speech. A few complications but I think it worked out alright.**

**(Third Review Reply lol) Species Unknown: I like your theory on different dimensions, its pretty close to what I was thinking writing this. I like to think that basically when you create something of fiction (like this story) you create another dimension. P.S. I love all these reviews.**

**Dzchan94: Loved your feedback about my writing. It's good to know I'm getting better at writing.**

**And finally to all of you who followed my story, I appreciate that you have taken interest. So how about that chapter huh? I added a little bit of Advanceshipping at the end. I know there hasn't been a whole lot of it. But it's there and it will happen it's just a little… slow. I've also noticed that my chapters are getting a little longer each time I write them, maybe even to 2,000 words a chapter. It might not seem like a lot to you but for me it's quite a bit. I used to think that it would be a piece of cake to write 2,000 words in one story, but I have found out its quite difficult when you're actually typing it. Well anyway farewell and see you new chapter.**


	5. Change of Plans

/edit/11-29-12/

**Hello again and welcome to another chapter. I hope is everyone is enjoying themselves. I wouldn't want you to be having a bad time, that would make me seem sick and twisted. Anyway here's a new chapter just ready to be read. Seriously if it could talk it would probably be begging. Or maybe I'm crazy, or tired. Probably tired. So… Look a disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: …**

**Well that WAS supposed to be a disclaimer, oh well just read the chapter.**

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Chapter 5 – Change of Plans

**David's POV(yeah back to this guy)**

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_I woke up, even though I was still tired. I had the weirdest dream and I didn't like the ending, it felt like II was reading a book and then stopped in the middle of it, never to read it again. All I could remember was a boat crash and pain in my forehead. (*cough* reference to *cough* another story *cough*)_

_But I got up, checked the time and groaned, it was only a little past five. "Why do I wake up this early?" I thought. "No matter how tired I am when I fall asleep." I looked over and saw that Ash and Pikachu were still asleep. Listening closely I guessed everyone was still asleep. "Makes sense" I thought. "Why would anyone wake up at five in the morning?" I decided to tinker with the Pokedex I had got from Professor Oak yesterday. After making so modifications, I noticed something. My injuries don't seem to be hurting. I took the bandages off of my head and walked to the bathroom. It was almost healed. Well enough for activity. I checked my ribs. They also seemed fine, still bruised but fine. "Alright I can move more freely now." I thought. Then a realization hit me. I could see if my thoughts were correct. Moving quietly back towards Ash's room I went to my bag and grabbed the lone pokeball I had hid from Ash, as well as a small flashlight. Once I had it, I grabbed my hoodie and went down the stairs. I quickly went out the door to the backyard putting on my hoodie. In my excitement I didn't notice the shadow of a person near the stairs. As so as I was outside I pulled out the Pokeball and sighed._

"I hope this is who I think it is…" I said to myself.

_I enlarged the ball, pushed the button and a white beam shot out. Time seemed to slow down as the white beam began to take shape, out came a bipedal creature with a bushy tail and two appendages from its head, with two small triangular ears on the top of its head, its legs were slightly kinked and it had slight bumps on its arms. As the light faded, I could see more of it. It was a yellow fox looking creature with black on its chest, feet, appendages, and over its eyes to the tip of its nose._

"Ri?" The creature said confused.

_I couldn't believe my eyes._

"Ri…Riolu?" I asked.

"Ri?! Rilu?! Ri Olu!" Riolu began to panic.

"Riolu it's me David!"

_Riolu was still panicking and looking around. I walked towards him slowly so I wouldn't scare him away. Once I was close enough I gently grabbed him by the arm._

"Riolu… It's me. Don't you remember?"

_I took out the flashlight and shined it on the back of my hand. A bluish light was emitted from it, and caused a shape to appear on my hand. It was a small marking that looked like a crude cursive s with a dash line going from the top-left to the bottom-right. On the right side of the mark was a curved line in the shape of a c. It was of equal size as the first part of the mark but it was slightly lower in position. I quickly showed it to Riolu._

"Riolu… Remember this?" I asked.

"Rii?" Riolu said as it moved its own hand into the light. "Riiii!"

Riolu then hugged me as hard as he could.

"Aha so you do remember me! It's been a while huh? I sure missed you."

"Ri! Ri!" Riolu cried out happily.

"And look what I've got!" I said, pulling out a berry. "Your favorite, a Rawst berry!"

I gave the blue strawberry looking berry to Riolu and he accepted it happily. As I watched him eat memories flooded my mind.

**Flashback ThirdPerson**

_A young boy the age of twelve was sitting outside an orphanage. It was a hot summer day in July, while the boy sat tinkering with a strange machine and Pokémon game known as Pokémon Diamond. The game card, which the boy had received for his birthday, was plugged into the device and was going to take part in his latest experiment. The boy had an idea to transfer stuff from the game. He was hoping to impress the other kids at the orphanage so they would like him._

"Okay Super Magic Awesome Machine 1 ready to test." The boy said, flicking a switch which apparently activated the machine.

_Then suddenly there was a flash of blinding light and a loud noise. The boy fell backwards._

"Ahhh!" He screamed.

_The light faded and there in front of him was a Pokémon Egg._

"Huh an Egg? Wait; is that one of those Pokémon Eggs? Cool! I wonder what it is." The boy said to himself.

_The boy suddenly heard loud footsteps. He quickly put the Egg in a nearby bush, hiding it from the outside world._

"Good Lord child what is making that racket?" An older woman said.

"It wasn't anything Mrs. StoneHeart. Just this thing I was making." The boy said pointing to the slightly damaged machine.

"Child how many times have I told you to stop making those stupid contraptions! You will have to be punished. Hold out your arms."

_The boy quickly crossed his arms and pulled them close to him, knowing what was coming to him._

"No." The boy said shaking his head.

"Damnit boy when will you listen?" She said grabbing his arm fiercely and pulling out a long flat stick.

"Noo!" The boy screamed as the stick struck his arm repeatedly. "Owww! Ow Ow Owww!" The boy began to cry in pain.

"Now pick up that infernal monstrosity and go to your room and you better be there when I check or else!"

_The boy quickly nodded as she walked back inside. Rubbing his arm he picked up the machine. He then remembered the Egg. He rushed over and took the Egg from the bush carefully, then ran back inside and to his room. Both fortunately and unfortunately, he had the room all to himself because everyone else refused to share a room with him. He entered the room, and placed the Egg on the bed. Well if you count a mattress lying on the floor with a single sheet to cover yourself with a bed then that's what it was. He put the machine on the cardboard boxes he used as a desk. To add more detail to location, the room was a plain square with a single window that had been busted out. It wasn't so bad during the summer, but in the winter it became freezing at night. The mattress served as the bed, while to cardboard boxes and a piece of wood made up his "desk". A couch cushion served as the chair for the desk, and another box contained his clothes. A third box , hidden in a small hole in the wall blocked by his "desk" contained anything else of value he owned, which wasn't much, a bunch of machine scrap, broken devices, a Gameboy modified to play Ds games as well as its native games, which basically was a crude remake of a Ds. He also had all the games he had "acquired" from places. Which were Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Pinball, FireRed, Diamond, and he planned on "acquiring" Pokémon Black and Black 2. He used to have Pokémon Yellow, but when a kid found out he had it, the boy was beaten up and had the game stolen. But in the corner of the box was a picture frame with cracked glass. Inside of it was a picture of the boy's parents. There was a man with black hair and a small mustache, with slightly tanned skin and brown eyes. He was wearing a black shirt with slacks. Next to him was a woman with brunette hair put back in a ponytail, she had glasses that covered deep blue eyes, while enhancing her beauty. She also had light skin. She was wearing a green sweater with a blue skirt. Both parents wear smiling and in between them was a small boy who looked to be around five, wearing a blue shirt and khaki shorts. He had ruffled brown hair and brown eyes, along with a huge smile on his face. He seemed to be really happy. This was a picture of the boy and his parents four days before they died. When the boy was feeling sad at night he would pull out the picture and look at it. Often times he would cry and end up crying to sleep clutching the photo. This picture was all he could remember of his parents. That and the night he found out his parents were gone. But back to the boy, he was staring at the Egg._

"I wonder what you'll be…" He said thinking.

_As if on cue, the Egg began to glow, shining brightly._

"Whoa is it? It is! Cool!" The boy said excitedly.

_Then the light changed to the form of a small fox and the light faded. And that was the day David met Riolu. They spent many days together sharing food and having fun in David's room. David made sure that no one found Riolu for he figured they would take Riolu from him. David even managed to get his machine to send him a pokeball from his game, and after asking Riolu for his consent he kept him in the ball, and had the ball with him always so nobody would steal it. One day Riolu became sick, thinking quickly David sent Riolu back to the game to help them there. When suddenly…_

"Boy! I thought I told you to get rid of that thing a week ago!" Mrs. StoneHeart said.

"I- I was going to but I forgot." The boy lied.

"I'm getting rid of it myself!"

She picked up the machine and, David, unable to stop her, watched as she threw it out his already busted window.

"Noooo!" David screamed crying.

_A loud crash was heard as the device hit the pavement breaking instantly after falling four stories. David ran down the stairs and to the machine only to find it in pieces, sparking erratically. David sniffed as he pulled the game card from the device and found it intact. Then onwards, the only way David communicated with Riolu was by making him hold mail in the game, and David imported Riolu into every new Pokémon game he got. Riolu had heard everything from Mrs. StoneHeart's punishments, and due to his young impressionable age Riolu developed a fear of anyone other than David, that continued to this day…_

**End Flashback**

"It's been a long time hasn't it, Riolu?"

"Olu…"

"But I'm glad we're back together again."

"Rii!" Riolu said happily, hugging David and eating at the same time.

"So you have a Riolu huh? And a shiny too." Ash asked.

_Riolu instantly froze at the sound of Ash's voice and buried his face against David._

"Ahh! Ash please be a little quieter."

"Okay but what for?' Ash asked at a quieter volume.

"Riolu is very timid around other people; he's fine if it's just me be he gets scared around anyone else" I explained.

"Alright but why he scared of others?" Ash asked.

"That's a story for another day." I said. "But since you know about him I might as well make him more comfortable around you and the others. Are they awake yet?"

"Yeah everyone's awake and eating breakfast except Pikachu, he's still asleep. So how did you get a shiny? " Ash answered.

"You wouldn't believe me and I really wish he wasn't shiny, a plain old Riolu would be fine by me. But… that's how he is and I'll still care for him as much as I can. I can introduce Riolu to the others after breakfast." I said. "It's okay Riolu. This is just Ash, he won't hurt you. He loves pokémon."

_Riolu had calmed down a little but he still seemed scared and tense. We walked inside of the house and I heard my stomach growl._

"Eh heh Guess I should eat too huh?" I said.

_I then returned Riolu to his pokeball before he had too much to handle with strangers._

**Boring Moments of Eating Later**

_Ash, Brock, May and Max were sitting in the living room, with Pikachu back on Ash's shoulder after his nap._

"Okay so I have a friend for you all to meet. But I ask that you all talk quietly and calmly and don't make any sudden movements. He gets really nervous around anyone other than me. So just try to be as unthreatening as possible. I'm going to release him in the other room since he doesn't like transition from Pokeball to outside very much."

_I then walked from the living room and into the kitchen, took the pokeball from my belt and released Riolu._

"Rii!"

"Hey Riolu. I have some friends I'd like you to meet." I said slowly.

_As always, Riolu instantly got tense and scared._

"Don't worry. They're my friends and I trust them. I promise they won't hurt you. I'm going to be right next to you."

_I then picked up Riolu and slowly walked back in the living room, hoping the others wouldn't scare him._

"Okay Riolu, these are my friends."

"Hi there Riolu, it's nice to meet you. I'm Ash and this is Pikachu."

"Hello Riolu. I'm Brock."

"And I'm May and this is-"

"Wow cool that Riolu is a shiny!" Max shouted.

_Riolu pressed himself against me._

"Max! David said not to scare Riolu." May scolded.

"Sorry May… Hey Riolu I didn't mean to scare you." Max apologized.

"Here Max offer Riolu this" I said tossing him a berry. "He'll feel less scared if you give him food."

"Oh okay, hey Riolu want a berry?"

_Riolu looked over at him and took the berry nervously. He relaxed a little as he ate the berry._

"See Riolu, they won't hurt you." I said softly.

"So why does Riolu get scared around strangers?" Max asked.

"Max!"

"It's okay May" I said. "Riolu has had traumatic experiences with people he didn't know, after he recently hatched. They terrified him so greatly he grew a fear of strangers."

"That's awful" Ash said.

"Most people would probably get annoyed dealing with his shyness, but I don't. Because I know why, I know how he feels, and I've shared his pain. And I have vowed to never let anyone hurt him again."

"Rii…" Riolu said remembering sad memories. I had a feeling which one's they were.

"So I'm glad you met Riolu, it should help him a little with his fear. But… I now have something to say. My injuries have healed enough so that I can move around better. I don't want to be a bother to you anymore, so I've decided to say goodbye." I said feeling a little said.

_As much as I want to stay, I have to find a way back home. I can't do that here._

"You're leaving David?" May asked surprised.

"I would just be a burden so I don't think I should stay." I said grabbing my bag I had brought down earlier.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, as nice as it was meeting you I feel the need to keep travelling."

"But I wanted to know Riolu better…" Max said sad at my departure.

_I opened the door and turned around._

"Well it was nice meeting you all. I hope we meet again sometime. In fact, Ash you travel a lot right?"

"Yeah." Ash answered.

"Ever heard of Sinnoh?" I said.

"No, is that a new region?" Ash asked.

"Yup, it has its own league and even contests." I said.

"Contests?" May asked.

"Yes it has own Grand Festival." I stated.

"Wow I didn't know that." Ash said.

"Yup I'm thinking of travelling there. Maybe we'll meet each other there. Well Farwell." I said walking away with Riolu on my shoulder.

_I made it seven steps away before Ash called out._

"Hey David wait!"

"Hmm, what is it?"

"Why not travel with us?" Ash asked.

_I was surprised. I mean I knew that he would invite some people to travel with him. Actually seeing his actions play out like a record was informative enough. But with me getting stuck here, I probably messed it up so bad there is no telling what could happen._

"Are… are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah I mean if we are both going there, why not travel together?"

"That makes sense, why not?" I said.

_I know I should find a way out of here, but it's not happening any time soon. So why not have some fun, I'll I have ever done is work, why not relax a little?_

"I'll join you. When are we leaving?" I asked.

"Well May and Max are leaving to go home. Max is starting his own journey soon and May is heading to Johto." Ash explained.

"Actually, I was thinking of travelling with you to Sinnoh, Ash." May said coming out the front door.

"Really?" Ash asked. "I thought you were going to Johto?"

"Nah if what David says is true and there are contests in Sinnoh, why not travel with you guys?" May replied.

"But, what about Solidad, Harley and Drew?"

"Well Harley is Harley, and Drew has been really annoying." May said. **(A/N: Heheh Drew, prepare to be bashed in the near future…)**

"You know Ash, its sounds like you don't want May to come with us." I said smirking.

"What?! N-no that's not what I want; I would love for her to travel with us." Ash said, once he realized exactly what he said he got red in the face.

"Aww… thanks Ash." May said, hugging Ash, causing him to grow redder.

_I looked over and saw Brock watching from the house smirking a little, I wonder if he has the same assumption as I do between Ash and May? He then looked over and stared straight at me. We locked eyes for a second, and in that second he seemed to be looking into my soul, as if he knew I was hiding something. He finally turned away, starting a conversation with Delia. I then sighed a little in relief._

"Hey David, I know this is kind of sudden, but how about a battle?" Ash asked, snapping me to reality.

"Huh? But I only have Riolu, and he hasn't really battled before." I said.

"Yeah but that doesn't matter. I'm sure a battle would be good for him, you know help him grow more comfortable."

"Well okay, but are you sure you want to battle an amateur like me?"

"Sure it's always good to battle others, who knows you could beat me." Ash said.

"I don't think that is possible. What do you say Riolu, want to battle?"

_Riolu seemed to think it over for a bit before saying…_

"Ri." He nodded his head determinedly.

"Okay Ash, Riolu says he wants to, so let's battle!"

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**Alright there is chapter five, all these chapters seem really slow and boring, but I plan on picking up the action. Plus, there is obviously a battle next chapter. So hopefully that's good. We also learned a little about David and his friend Riolu, which I made a shiny, not because he is awesome, but I think of it more like a bad characteristic based on myself. How is that bad you ask? I got a shiny Riolu on my seventh try at getting one. I told my friends about it, and instead of getting a congratulations, they hated me for it. They were mad because they hadn't caught a shiny and I get one easily. They hated me so much for it we didn't talk for a few days. I really wish I never got one, I mean sure it's cool and all, but to fight over it? That's really unnecessary. But it still happened and I feel like it was stupid to do. But I felt like throwing that in there to say that getting a shiny isn't always a good thing. It's awesome, but I don't want to argue about it. Anyway, enough about boring me, let's move on. I added some info about David onto my profile if you wish to check it out. You don't have to, just saying… Here are some questions.  
1. Who was the shadowy figure watching David?  
2. What does the mark on David's and Riolu's hand symbolize?  
Something to think about.**

**I'll see you next chapter.**


	6. Battling and Confessions

**Okay guys welcome to chapter six. I realized something. I didn't reply to the reviews I got last chapter. Although I only got one, I really don't care anymore about getting them. I just wanted to know if people were enjoying my story or if I was just wasting time. But! I would like to give special thanks to Species Unknown for being the one of the few to review my story. Granted it's more like a conversation, I don't care and nether should anyone else. I enjoy talking to you Species Unknown; it's nice to speak with a fellow writer and reader. So I will reply to the reviews (aka Species' Reviews) at the bottom of the story like I should. So yeah review or don't, I no longer care. But again, thanks Species Unknown for talking to a no name beginner in story writing like me. It's nice to have someone see an interest in something you have made. We should talk more often. And thanks Dzchan94 for providing feedback and tips when they are needed. You're a great help. Anyway enough with my personal business. Read (and hopefully enjoy) this chapter. **

Chapter six – Battling and Confessions

_May and Max were sitting on the ground a small distance from the open field of Ash's backyard. Ash and I were standing on opposite sides of the field, with Brock, were you could consider the sidelines to be, in-between us. I was battling THE Ash Ketchum, the trainer who has gone through the Kanto league, Orange Islands, Johto League, Hoenn League, and the Battle Frontier. Did I feel nervous? Hell yeah I did. I'm battling him in my first battle outside of the games. This isn't like said games were I can take my time choosing what to do, I have to think and act quickly. At least I don't have to worry about swapping my pokémon out. I only have Riolu, so that has good and bad points. Plus it's one on one, so just come on I can do this. Think of some related memories to get past this nervousness… Okay that was a bad idea. Focus on this, this happy moment; I'm in my favorite childhood video game, about to battle one of my greatest heroes._

"Okay, this will be a one on one battle between Ash Ketchum and David Heathernson with no time limit. The battle will be over when either side is unable to battle. Trainers choose your pokémon." Brock announced, interrupting my thoughts.

"Alright Riolu, let's go this!" I said as Riolu jumped off my backpack and onto the field.

"Okay Pikachu, you're up buddy!" Ash said with Pikachu jumping off his shoulder onto the field.

"This battle will be between Pikachu and Riolu. And begin!" Brock shouted.

"Ash you have the first move." I said.

"Alright, Pikachu use Quick Attack!"

"Riolu, Counter then Force Palm!"

_Riolu braced himself as Pikachu rushed towards him. Before he hit…_

"Pikachu quickly dodge to the side, then use thunderbolt!" Ash shouted.

"Riolu dodge and use Force Palm again!

_Pikachu quickly avoided hitting Riolu be moving to the side, he shot out a Thunderbolt towards Riolu. Riolu dodged and then jumped towards Pikachu hitting him with Force Palm._

"Ah! Pikachu use IronTail!" Ash yelled out.

"Riolu, Counter!"

_Pikachu's hit collided with Riolu just as counter went up. Riolu took some damage to the arm, but luckily we hit Pikachu back._

"Riolu jump back and use Focus Blast!"

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

_Both attacks collided in the middle of the field, creating a small explosion._

"Riolu, Quick Attack then Force Palm!"

"Pikachu Double Team!"

_Riolu charged through the smoke only to be surrounded by multiple copies of Pikachu. Riolu looked around trying to find the real one._

"Riolu use your Aura to find the real one!"

_Riolu closed his eyes but it seemed that he was struggling._

"Riolu use Force Palm!"

_Riolu lunged at one of the Pikachu's, only for it to disappear on hit._

"Ahh that was the wrong one!"

"Pikachu use thunder!"

"Quick Riolu, Endure!"

_Riolu braced himself as the bolt came down, striking Riolu and causing another small explosion. Riolu was flung through the air, but managed to land on his feet, stumbling a little. Riolu was now on Ash's side and Pikachu was on mine. From here I could see Pikachu was pretty tired, but Riolu looked like he was going to fall over any second.  
"All or nothing" I thought._

"Riolu get ready to use Aura Sphere!" I shouted.

"Pikachu, charge up a Volt Tackle!"

"_Crap!" I thought. "I hope Riolu can prepare his Aura fast enough." Riolu began forming a sphere of blue swirling energy, but it was poking out in places, more like a disfigured sphere. It looked more like Riolu was having trouble keeping it together. Pikachu began to charge towards Riolu. As Pikachu passed the middle of the field he was surrounded in electricity, doubling his speed. Riolu released the Aura Sphere just as Pikachu came close causing yet another explosion, bigger than the previous two. All I could here was the crackle of electricity, the explosion, and Riolu and Pikachu's scream. Riolu's scream made my blood freeze. It all seemed to slow down as Riolu flew through the dispersing smoke, bounced off the ground and slide to a stop in front of me stomach down with his head to the side. Pikachu was kneeling on Ash's side, but I was only paying attention to Riolu. I ran to him, rolled him over and had him lie in my lap. Sparks were jumping around and I could tell he was paralyzed. I faintly heard Ash being declared the winner._

"Riolu are you alright." I said softly, on the verge of crying.

_Riolu managed to open his eyes and smile slightly; he nodded once letting me know he was not in any mortal danger._

"Here eat this." I said pulling out a Cheri berry.

_Riolu ate the berry and closed his eyes; I could tell he was unconscious._

"I'm so proud of you Riolu… Please take a good rest okay?" I said, putting him back in his ball.

"Is he alright?" Max asked.

_I looked up and saw everyone had crowded around me._

"Yeah" I said. "He'll be okay."

"Hey David. I'm sorry, maybe this battle wasn't a good idea after all." Ash said.

"No it's alright. Riolu looked like he really enjoyed the battle. How's Pikachu?"

"Pika pikachu." Pikachu said, answering my question.

"That was a rally great battle David." May said trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah" Ash added. "I thought you would win for sure."

"It's getting kind of late. We should go in." Brock said, watching the sun set.

"Can we eat? That battle made me hungry." I said trying to lighten the mood.

_I was feeling better since I knew Riolu was okay. We walked back inside to find Delia already making dinner. My stomach growled at the smell of it._

"I really hate that." I said, referring to the growling of my stomach.

"Why is that David?" May asked.

"Because when it growls, I realize how hungry I am, which in turn makes it worse."

"I know what you mean David." Ash said.

"Hey Brock, you're an expert in pokémon food right?" I inquired.

"Well I don't know anything about being an expert. But I make a lot of pokémon food." Brock said modestly.

"Would it be possible if you could make some food for Riolu?" I asked.

"Sure, but you'll have to owe me a favor." Brock said.

"Umm sure." I say, slightly confused.

_Brock never really asked for anything in return before. I guess he just wanted something this time._

"What kind of favor do you have in mind?" I asked.

"Oh… I can't think of one right know. I'm sure something will come up."

"Okay then."

_I do NOT like the look in his eye. But right then Delia came in._

"Okay everyone dinner is finished."

"Woo hoo, I'm starved!" Ash shouted, running to the kitchen.

"Hey Ash save some for us" May said.

"Yeah Ash" Max said.

_We walked into the kitchen, and looked at the table it was filled with food, Ash was already eating._

"I thought everyone might be extra hungry since everyone missed lunch." Delia asked.

"Well Ash certainly is" I joked.

_And with that we began eating._

**Boring Moments of Eating  
(I'm going to do this every time)**

_Everyone was just beginning to finish, I for one had finished a long time ago._

"I can't believe you finished before Ash." Max said to me.

"Yeah are you sure you ate enough?" May asked.

"Of course he did, he got almost as much as Ash did." Max said.

"Guys guys it's not that big a deal." I said. "I just eat fast when I'm hungry."

"Well regardless everyone should head off to bed." Delia said. "You wouldn't want to miss the ferry to Sinnoh would you?"

"Ah we forgot to get tickets!" Ash shouted.

"No need to worry, I bought some for everyone. Delia said. _At the first part of her sentence a certain Bluenette sneezed._

"Well that's a relief; I'm off to bed." Brock said.

May yawned. "I'm tired too, let's go Max."

"But I'm not tired." Max complained.

"You will be when we are ready for bed." May countered.

"Come on David" Ash said to me.

_We climbed up the stairs, Ash went to his room and I headed for the bathroom. I heard what sounded like May inside. "Great" I thought." This could take a while." I leaned against the wall and began to mess with the Pokedex again. By the time May stepped out I had made some major changes. I slipped it back on my belt as she headed off to bed. I stepped in and began to brush my teeth. When I walked out Brock was standing there. I looked at him wondering._

"Did you need to use the bathroom" I asked.

"No" He said. "I thought of what you could do for me."

_I gulped. He had that look again. Kind of like that look a parent would give to a child who did something wrong._

"Uh what is it?" I ask.

"You're hiding something. I want to know what it is." Brock said.

"Wh-what makes you think that?" I ask a little scared.

"I know you're hiding something. I can see it."

"You wouldn't believe me." I say.

"Try me." Brock replies.

I give in. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything you're hiding."

I sighed. "You know you're a lot more observant than I'd thought you would be, but okay then. I will tell you everything, but if you don't believe me, it's the truth. I guess it all started two days ago before you all met me, I was at my house perfecting a project I had been working on called Project I.D.T. It was a machine that I created in order to allow the travel between dimensions of time, space, and fiction. The machine would tear a portal into any dimension I chose. That's how I arrived here, and where I come from… you're not real, all of this… the regions, pokémon, you and everyone else… are all just made up works of fiction."

"So you're telling me I don't exist?" Brock replied skeptically.

"It can be confusing, but I think that when I arrived here I changed that, I made this all a reality, just by coming here. Anyway I'm not from here; me falling from the sky was my entrance to this dimension, and that story I told you all… It was all a lie, I have never been to Hoenn, I didn't meet Norman, and I don't live in Slatport."

"So how do you know about all this stuff about our world?" Brock asked.

"I told you. Where I come from you were just a video game I played as a kid. Oh how that brought me the only happiness in life."

"That sounds really pathetic." Brock said.

"My parents died when I was six. I lived in an orphanage were everyone avoided and hated me. In high school I was beaten to near death and left in an alleyway where I would have died if I had not been discovered unconscious by someone who to this day I still do not know of. My only retreat from the harsh world was here, a video game."

"How do I know this isn't a lie?" Brock asked.

"You have medical knowledge, right? Then look at these." I said pulling up my hoodie and shirt, showing him my stomach.

"These I got from the people who beat me up during high school." I said showing him my scars.

"Are those-"

"Stab wounds." I replied flatly. "They drew knives, stabbed me, cut me and beat me with anything they could get their hands on."

"That's horrible." Brock said. "Why did they do that?"

"They hated me, I was some unknown kid who stayed away from everyone and lived in an orphanage, and most of what I did was strive to be the smartest I could in my classes. The people who received schooling at the same school as me hated smart people, claimed it made them look dumb, and they definitely don't like being insulted. After I woke up in the hospital, the doctors told me I had been out for three days. I had lost a lot of blood and if I hadn't arrived when I did I would have died. I asked them who brought me there and all they said was it was a girl around my age."

"Okay I believe you. You're not lying. But if you came here then don't you also have a way back? What if it got into the wrong hands?" Brock said.

"Impossible." I replied. "There was only one way back to my dimension, a device I called the "Return to Sender". It was a small remote that would return me back home. And I kind of forgot it back home." I replied sheepishly.

"So you have no way back home?" Brock said surprised.

"No. Someone could come here after me but that is highly unlikely, I made the activation extremely complicated. So that if someone took the machine they could not activate it."

"But now that I think about it, I'm not sure I want to go back." I continued. "I really have no one and nothing to return to."

"Well you don't seem bad and Ash and the others really like you so why not stay with us?" Brock offered.

"Sure but could you do me another favor? Don't tell the other about my past, it's a rough one and I don't what them to feel sorry for me. And I'll tell them the truth later. I think it's too soon to tell them now."

"Alright it's your decision, but remember the longer you hold off telling them, the harder it will be." Brock advised.

"It's okay I know, and Brock?"

"Yeah?"

"Goodnight, and… thanks for making me confess, lying is not my style so it's great to get off my chest."

"No problem. Goodnight David."

_I walked back towards Ash's room where I was sleeping; Ash was already asleep with Pikachu. I walked in and climbed into my sleeping bag, before I got comfortable, I pulled out Riolu's pokeball and released him._

"Hey Riolu, want to sleep in the sleeping bag with me?" I asked quietly. "I know you hate Pokeballs."

"Ri!" Riolu said quietly and we drifted off to sleep together."

**Okay chapter six is done. Pretty soon too. This is definitely sooner than most chapters, I must be getting better at typing. Or I have more time on my hands. Anyway here's the reply(s) I promised.**

**Species Unknown(Chapter Four): I think that's pretty neat. Seems like we have similar ideas. Coincidence or Conspiracy?**

**Species Unknown(Chapter Five): I haven't really thought about Aura, considering there wasn't much about it in Diamond and Pearl, Maybe I should add some to the story.**

**Dzchan94: Yeah my friends can be dumb at times, but they're mostly good people, I like hanging out with them. I appreciate the feedback; it's good to know I'm getting better.**


	7. Different Views of the World

**Alright chapter Seven, I am proud to say that this story has received over 800 views. I don't know how great amount is, but I'll take these views. It feels like a milestone. I've also added a poll for the storyline, you can check it on my profile or where ever else you check polls at, I don't really know where since I'm new to the writing stories thing and really only ever read them. But please take a look at the poll, I have different scenarios for each of them so no matter what the storyline can fit to the choice. I just don't know which action to take so that's where you guys come in. Guide my hand into what you what for the story. So yeah, moving on, enjoy the chapter Ladies and Gentlemen. Yes you can't forget the ladies, such is the art of a gentlemen.**

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Chapter Seven – Different Views of the World

_A lone figure stood in a tree near the residence of Ash Ketchum; he wore a black hat with a headset attached, a black shirt and black pants, with gray gloves and boots, across his shirt was a red letter R. He held a pair of high- tech binoculars, and was using them to look through an open window on the second floor of the house. He flipped a switch and a small dart with what appeared to be a small microphone attached, shot through the window and attached itself to a wall where two certain individuals were speaking to one another. He pushed a button next to the switch and began to record the conversation._

"*static* *static*…do you what to know?"

"Everything you're hiding."

"*sigh* You know you're more observant than I'd thought you would be…"

_The man's eyes began to grow wider and wider through each minute of the conversation. He stopped recording when the conversation broadcasted some pathetic story about a tough childhood. "Hurmp. What a pathetic weakling." The dark clothed man thought. "But that dimension stuff sounds interesting." He pressed a button on his headset as he jumped down the tree. _

"Hey boss?"

"What? What is it?" another man said in a slightly annoyed voice.

"You might what to listen to this." He played the recording.

"Hmm intriguing. Are you sure this is true info?" He man's boss asked.

"Has my information ever been wrong before?" He said in a smug voice.

"Grrr. No, and don't take that snotty tone with me, remember who you are _Grunt_." The boss said, adding emphasis on the final word.

"Yes sir. Any additional orders?"

"Observe that man for the next two weeks. Report to me then and not before, unless more such info appears. Got it?" He said sternly.

"Sir, yes sir."

"Then get to it. Hey, get me another hat you!" The boss yelled at another off-microphone person before he ended the call. **(A/N: I added the hat thing at the request of a close friend. It is simply there for a laugh. It will be reoccurring though so yeah…)**

"Alright then 'David Heathernson', you better be worth this trouble…"

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"Hey! David! Wake up! Wake up!"

"Urrggh… Who's shouting?" I said slowing waking up.

"It's about time, I was afraid you wouldn't get up." I recognized Ash's voice.

"*yawn* Why are we getting up so early?" I asked still groggy.

"Remember, we have to catch that ferry to Sinnoh. Now hurry up or you'll miss breakfast." He said walking out the door.

_That woke me up. I climbed out of the sleeping bag, and then my stomach growled._

"Well that decision's made. Come on Riolu time to wake up."

"Ri?"

_Riolu poked his head over the fluffy pillow. At this angle all I could see was his head among the fluffiness._

"That is really adorable." I said. "Come 'ere you."

"Ri!"

_I scooped him up and hugged him._

"Come on let's get some food before we starve." I said. **(A/N: Too much fluffiness?)**

_After a few rushed minutes of getting ready, we walked down the stairs._

"Any food left?" I asked.

"Yeah, you're just in time. Ash was about to eat the last of it." Max said.

"Hey! I said he had to hurry."

"Yeah, but come on Ash, everyone else has to eat too." May argued.

"Well either way I'm starved." I said.

_I began to gather the remaining breakfast on my plate._

"Hey David, I made some pokémon food for Riolu, maybe he should try some?" Brock asked.

"You're right; he has to eat something too. How about it Riolu? Want to try it?"

_Brock to out a container and poured the contents in a bowl. They were small, brown cylinders with tiny flicks of light blue in them. I recognized it easily. Brock took one of the kernels and held it up to Riolu who had come over, sniffing the air curiously._

"Here Riolu." Brock said, offering the food.

_Riolu took it hesitantly and bit into it, first thoughtfully, then with great enthusiasm, like a kid's first taste of his favorite food._

"I take it he likes it." I said as Riolu chowed down.

_I then was reminded of the food in front of me by a certain organ that handles digestion and energy retrieval from food._

**Boring Moments of Eating  
(Yup, every time.)**

"Alright guys we should head out for the ferry, it's almost time for it to leave port." Brock said glancing at the clock on the wall.

"Alright then guys let's head out!" Ash said.

"Okay, come on Riolu!" I called out.

"Rilu!" He said jumping on my bag, and laying over my shoulder.

"Comfy?" I said jokingly.

"Ri." He nodded.

"Alright, we're set." I said.

_I glanced up and noticed that no one was around._

"H-hey, where did everyone go?"

"Hurry up David, we've got no time to waste." Brock called from the door.

"Hey! If it weren't for me you wouldn't even be heading to Sinnoh!" I said running after them.

_I finally caught up with them after five minutes of running as fast as I could, which was more like sprinting really._

"*Huff* *Huff* I *Huff* really… Hate running. *Huff* Walking is okay, but running is not something us intellectuals partake in frequently." I managed to get out.

"Well at least we made it to the ferry in time." Ash said.

"Where are May and Max?" I asked noticing they weren't here.

"They're saying their goodbyes to each other." Brock explained.

"Oh, okay." I replied understanding the siblings' moment of farewell.

_After about a minute May came back._

"Okay let's go guys." May said coming back from Max's ferry.

_Brock and I headed up the walk way but Ash stayed behind. I looked over my shoulder and saw Ash give May a hug of comfort. "I guess those two totally have got it out for each other. It's not really my business." I thought. I looked over and saw Brock looking at them too, smirking._

"So you know they like each other too huh?" I asked.

"Yeah I've known for a while." Brock said. "They have been like that since before you came here. I can tell they both feel an attraction for each other, but I think there is more to it. Ash has convinced me that he loves her. And I'm sure she feels the same way. They just need some sort of push towards each other."

"I don't think we should get involved."

"Why's that?" Brock asked.

"Well, it sounds like an invasion of privacy, and I don't belong here."

"Yeah, I know. You're not from here." Brock said.

"No, I meant I don't belong in relationship interference as I have no experience in the matter."

"Well… Okay then. I guess we really shouldn't then. Alright. No interfering."

"Interfering with what?"

_Both Brock and I both froze up at the sound of May and Ash behind us._

"Oh, uh, nothing important. Just ah… Brock here was uh… telling me about the pokémon food for Riolu." I said quickly.

"Ri?"

"Yeah! I was telling David about uh… the ingredients and preparation and how we should change it." Brock replied.

"Oh, okay then." May said.

"Heh heh yeah…" I said awkwardly. "Hey why don't we check out what room we're staying in?" I added trying to ease the awkwardness.

_We walked off of the deck we arrived on and headed down stairs. (I have no idea what the decks are called since I've never been on a boat before.) We arrived on the floor with all of the rooms for the passengers._

"Okay so Room 447… It should be down this hallway." Brock said checking our tickets.

"Here it is." I said.

_We walked inside and gazed upon our room. I was spacious, with a small table and its own bathroom; there were some nice decorations, such as a few pictures and a small plant. But there was one small problem…_

"Um guys? There are only two beds." I said.

"Sooo… I call dibs!" May shouted.

"What?!" Ash, Brock and I all shouted together.

"You can't do that!" Ash said.

"Yes I can." May replied matter-of-factly.

"No, I suggest we all have a little competition." I said.

"What kind of competition?" Brock asked suspiciously.

"I have 7 straws, each is a different length, we'll each take one straw and the person with the shortest straw, and the other with the longest, gets the beds." I explained.

"How know we know you won't cheat?" Ash asked.

"One, I'm hurt that you would think that. Two, Riolu will be holding them." I said.

"Alright we'll play your game." Brock said.

"Olu." Riolu said getting the sticks.

_Riolu took out the seven straws of different length. Hiding the bottom of them and making the visible part appear to be equal length, he turned back to us._

"Ri!" he said holding his paws out to us.

_I took a straw and noticed it wasn't too long or too short. "Crud." I thought. "I hope they don't get better ones." Brock took one; Ash took one, followed by May. Brock's was pretty long, longer than all of ours._

"Looks like I get a bed." Brock said.

_I looked at both May's and Ash's straws. They were both shorter than mine. "Why me?" I thought. Ash's turned out to be shorter than May's. She was pretty open about her discomfort._

"Nooo! Not fair, I called dibs!" May cried.

"Yeah but you agreed to draw straws." Brock said.

"It's still not fair…" May complained. "I blame you!" She added pointing at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You suggested we draw straws." She began to walk towards me.

"B-but I have to sleep on the floor too." I argued.

_She kept walking towards me. I was beginning to feel scared._

"Um May what are you…?"

"I'm going to make myself feel better." She said at a lower volume than usual.

_She got even closer._

"But surely you aren't a violent person?! Come on now, you're better than this! Um guys… Little help?" The fear was noticeable in my voice.

"Ahhh I'm going to get a pamphlet from the front desk. Ash, want to come with me?" Brock said quickly.

"Sure. Come on Pikachu." Ash said in a rushed voice.

"Pika!"

_Ash jumped up with Pikachu and all three darted out the door._

"Wait guys don't leave me here!" I called out. "Riolu?"

_He was nowhere to be seen._

"Ohhhh David." May called.

"Y-yes." I cried. "Oh please May; don't you think this is over reacting a little bit?" I pleaded.

"You shouldn't have denied me a comfortable bed."

"I'm sorry! Please! Don't! Ahhhhhhhh!"

…

**A few hours later.**

_I was lying stomach down on the flour groaning in pain. May was near me setting up her sleeping bag. Both of us had to be in-between the two beds because said beds, were a good distance apart and there was not enough space anyway else._

"*Groan*"

"Shouldn't have made me do that David." May said in a scolding voice.

"But I *groan* didn't."

"Your actions lead up to it."

"Is everything okay in here guys?" Ash asked as they all came back through the door.

"Whhhhhyyy?" I cried. "How did it take four hours to get a pamphlet?"

"Well there was a pretty receptionist… and we did some exploring." Brock said sheepishly.

"Not cool guys… I'm going to bed."

"At seven-thirty?" Brock asked.

"The Pain. If I don't wake up tomorrow just make sure I do before we arrive." I groaned, crawling to my sleeping bag.

"Ri?" Riolu came from almost nowhere.

"It's okay Riolu I know you didn't mean to leave me." I said.

_Riolu walked over to me and snuggled up to me lying down. I wrapped my arm around him and we drifted off to sleep together._

**Ash's POV(Something has to happen while David, figuratively "dies" for 16 hours.)**

_Brock, May and I stared at David as he passed out. Brock tapped his cheek with the back of his hand._

"Yup, out like a light." He said.

"Wow May. What did you do to him exactly?" I asked.

"I won't say."

_May cracked her knuckles; David visually shuddered in his sleep. That scared me a little. Maybe we should have warned him about what happens to May when she's angry._

"So what now guys?" May asked.

"There is a restaurant on the boat. And there's a theater here." Brock said looking at a map.

"This ferry is like a Luxury Cruiser." May said.

"I'll have to thank Mom." I said.

"_It was nice of her to get us some tickets for such a fancy boat." I thought. We walked up onto the entertainment deck. We found this nice looking restaurant and decided to have our final meal of the day at it. May got some Ramen, Brock got a club sandwich and I ordered a burger. _**(A/N: No eating transition. :( )**_ Afterwards we decided to head to the theater. When we got there we decided we would watch "Invaders". It didn't seem too bad. It was some movie about strange UFOs that started abducting people and pokémon. There was obviously going to be a sequel since the ending was pretty open. It was by Pokestar Studios so they probably had a script for it in development. May kept her hand on mine the whole time but I didn't mind. The movie lasted about an hour and a half hour so it was nine-thirty._

"We should probably head back to the cabin." I said.

"Okay, that sounds go- Hey! Look at those girls over there!" Brock interrupted his own sentence.

_He ran off in the direction of the girls. I turned my attention back to the one next to me._

"There he goes again" I said sighing.

"Man, does he ever quit?"

"Nope. Should we go get him?"

"Nah, let's take a walk."

"Okay." I said confused.

_We walked over to the side of boat near the railing. The sun was just setting, casting an orange glow._

"Wow, so beautiful." May said.

"Yeah" I replied glancing over at May.

_I think she noticed because she smiled at me. I immediately felt my face heat up. She went back to watching the sunset and I took the opportunity to observe how beautiful the sunset made her look. It seemed to cast a warm glow around her, just like her heart. It made her eyes sparkle, deep blue coinciding with orange, making them shine like stars. Her hair seemed to absorb the fading sun's rays; it seemed to glow dimly. It wasn't just her outward beauty; her inner beauty is what I loved the most, her kindness towards others, and her love for her pokémon, and when she is determined she can't let anything bring her down. She must have noticed I was looking at her again because she interrupted my thoughts._

"Ash? Why are you staring at me?" She asked.

"Oh um, no particular reason." I said.

_The mood seemed perfect. Her eyes looking into mine, mine back into hers. I felt myself being drawn towards her. It was as if something deep in my heart said "move". We inched closer and closer, I could feel her breath against my lips. It felt so warm in the cool air. I noticed she began to close her eyes and I did the same, still feeling like I was being gently pushed towards her. Just when I though we couldn't get any closer…_

"Ugh sorry about running off guys."

"Brock!" Both May and I screamed.

"What? Oh am I interrupting something?" He asked.

"No." Both of us answered at the same time, fairly quickly.

_Consider the mood killed._

"Alright" He said skeptically. "Let's head back to the room."

"_What did I almost do?" I thought. "I had almost kissed May. Why did I almost do that? Why do I want to? Is that what I been feeling? I want to do that because of some feeling I have? I need some help with this…" We opened the door and Brock turned on a nearby lamp._

"Hey David? You awake?" Brock said quietly.

_I went around the bed and saw David still asleep._

"He's still out cold. May, you really did something to him." I said.

"Maybe I did overact a little." She said sheepishly.

"Well he'll definitely be hungry in the morning. Considering he missed dinner." Brock said.

"Well I'm tired." I said yawning.

"Yeah, me too." Brock added.

"I have to sleep on the floor." May said sounding sad.

"You know David didn't do it on purpose." I said lying down.

"Yeah I guess." May replied.

"Goodnight May."

"Goodnight Ash."

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**David's POV(I gave you some Advanceshipping fluff, okay?)**

_I woke up feeling light headed and terribly hungry. I felt so weak from hunger that I'm surprised I woke up on my own. I tried to crawl out of the sleeping bag, noticing how weak I was. I could barely get it open. My struggling woke up Riolu, who immediately was curious about my condition._

"Riolu… get… get the food bag from my backpack." I managed to struggle out. "I hate being hungry."

_I hated hunger pains, and how often I got hungry didn't help. Stupid high metabolism. I had gotten really hunger once. I know now how close I had been to actual death. It happened to me when I lived back at the orphanage. I came so close to death that that it scared me. I was startled right now. It felt no-where near as close to the feeling I got back then and I knew it wasn't that serious, but I felt more memories come up._

_**Flashback**_

_I was lying curled up on the mattress in my room. It had been a month since Riolu joined me and two and a half weeks ago I got into trouble. Miss StoneHeart said I wouldn't get food until further notice. But back then I didn't know how bad it was to go without it, so I didn't worry too much. After three days I began to feel really hungry, by the end of the week I no longer felt hungry but I had really bad stomach pains and felt constipated. Two days after that I had constantly went to the bathroom__. A day later I felt really weak, and I felt dizzy almost all the time. I figured I was sick so I tried to tell someone but they ignored me. And everyone seemed to forget I couldn't eat. I didn't what to risk getting in trouble again so I didn't ask. At least I could still drink water; but I found myself doing that more and more often. After I while I really wanted to eat something. It was all I thought about. Eating food. I couldn't think of anything else._

"Ri-Riolu… I'm really hungry." I said.

"Ri…"

"I just want… something. It doesn't have to be tasty."

"Ri rilu ri olu!"

"N-no Riolu i-if they… see you… they'll t-take you… from m-me. And I won't have no friends anymore." I sobbed.

"Ri!" _He took off out the door._

"Ri-riolu… Please don't…" _I passed out._

**Riolu's POV**

"_David's really hungry… Why are they so mean to him?" I thought. "Can't they see he's hungry?" I ran out the opening rectangle thing David walked through, and entered a long open area to walk down. "I'll find him some food I though. "But where is it? And what do people eat, anyway?" I began to sniff the air. An aroma of something that smelled good lead down this weird incline thing. I walked down it and remembered._

"_David said if they see me they'll take me away." I thought._

_I began to walk more silently; I reached the bottom of the incline. (I think David called them "stairs".) I walked down another walkway and came to a large open space with long, flat objects resting horizontally on sticks. I sniffed the air again. "Over there!" I felt a strong sense of anger coming from a large human as I walked through the smaller opening into an area with metal cubes. And thin flimsy material containing what I smelled. Sensing more humans in the room, I began to use my Aura to locate them. I suddenly heard a human yelling angrily at another one. And then a circular metal thing was thrown towards me. I panicked and tried to move out of the way, but it still hit me… over the head. I fell to the ground and began to cry in pain. _

"_Why did they do that? They didn't even realize I'm here." I whimpered._

_They must have heard me because the yelling got louder and more stuff was thrown at me. I ran to one of the fabric containers and ripped it open. Luckily the humans couldn't see me due to the metal things. I pulled one of the containers open. It ripped quite easily. I found some apples inside and I grabbed a few apples and heard footsteps. I ran back into the room with the long, flat, raised wood things. I heard the humans running after me. I tried using my Aura to find out how close they were but I couldn't._

"_Why can't I use it?! It always worked before!"_

_Hearing another thrown object, I ran faster back to the long walkway, back up the "stairs" and into David's den. I don't think the humans saw where I went because the footsteps (and strong feeling of anger) walked past David's den. Feeling relief, I turned back to David. His eyes looked sunken into his head and he was shivering. I dropped the apples and tried to wake him up._

"Please! Please wake up." I said.

_He opened an eye._

"Riolu?" he said weakly.

"Yay!" I said. "You're awake! Here, I found food." I said pushing an apple toward him.

_He took the apple and began to eat it hastily._

"Thank you Riolu." he said after finishing all the apples.

_He then pulled me into a hug. I returned it, happy he was okay now._

"I can't believe you did that Riolu; Never do it again!" He said.

_I felt sad. I had got him food, so why was he mad?_

"If you got caught I don't know what I would do… I would be so sad. I don't want you to ever leave me." He said.

_I hugged him harder._

"I won't." I promised.

_I loved how much I meant to him, he always liked having me around and we had so much fun together. His aura was always soothing too. A nice silver that always seemed to comfort me. I felt his breathing deepen, signaling David was asleep, knowing he was okay I pulled the lone sheet over us and I joined him in slumber._

David's input: "Shortly after that I was allowed to eat again. And very slowly I recovered from my hunger and returned to health, thanks to Riolu's help and another unknown person."

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_**End Flashback; **_**Back to David's POV**

"I'm glad that you got that food for me back when we were younger." I said grabbing the food bag Riolu had retrieved.

"Ri!" He said remembering too.

"I see you're awake, and hungry." Ash said, waking up just as I finished devouring the food.

"Yeah. I'm never skipping a meal again." I replied laughing a bit.

"ATTENTION ALL PASSENGERS, WE WILL BE DOCKING NEAR TWINLEAF TOWN IN SINNOH IN TWO HOURS. PLEASE BE READY TO DEPART AT THAT TIME. THANKYOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY." The captain said over the speakers.

"Well we're almost there." I said just as May and Brock woke up.

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**Okay so there is chapter seven. A dark figure emerges! Surely there is going to be conflict on the horizon? Also, more trips into the past of David and some Advanceshipping fluff. And soon they'll be in Sinnoh. Just as a head's up the story will probably differ from the anime a lot, due to the fact I don't remember a whole lot from the shows, and I have never beaten the game.  
I would also like to see if anyone can guess what the room number is from. Here's a hint: It's definitely pokémon related and you can find it in a Sinnoh national Pokedex.**

**Here are the replies.**

**FPSlover1: Hello sir, glad to see you're enjoying the story! I hope I hear more from you. And that you continue to enjoy the story of course!**

**Species Unknown: David has had a rough past hasn't he? I hope to reveal more of it in time. And I will definitely make sure Ash retains his knowledge of Pokémon. When you think about it, in Unova he should be a veteran of Pokémon. But instead it's like he is starting his very first journey in Unova instead of Kanto.**


	8. Arrival in a New Land

**Okay, chapter eight. This would have been posted sooner, but my brot****her took the computer for a few days, and I made the mistake of accidentally reading a Fanfic with a sad ending involving character death. I did not know that character death was involved so the shock really didn't help. I flat out DO NOT like sad endings, I get depressed after reading them. So I was unable to type for a while. I'm probably going to sound like a pansy, but I cried. Yes, a sixteen year old male cried after reading a Fanfic was a sad ending. Do not judge, I'm more of an emotional kind of guy, and I just can't handle sad things like important character death. So… moving past that… the chapter…**

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Chapter Eight – Arrival in a New Land

"Come on guys. We have two hours to prepare for Sinnoh." I said.

"I'm going to get dressed." Ash said.

"I feel like cooking some breakfast." Brock said.

"On a boat? With restaurants we could eat from instead?" I asked.

"Yeah I know, but I feel like it." Brock said.

"Well alright then, your cooking is really great anyway." I said, shrugging it off as common knowledge.

"Really? But how would you know about my…?"

_I gave him a knowing look._

"Oh… right." He said, understanding my look.

_May looked as us, slightly confused, then shrugged it off while proceeding to wait outside the bathroom._

"I'm going to have a look around." I said. "Seeing as I missed most of yesterday."

"You should check the theater" May called from near the bathroom.

"Nah, I think I'll sightsee." I replied. "Come on Riolu."

"Rilu!" He said climbing on my shoulder.

"Okay David, remember the time." Brock called.

"I'll remember." I said as I walked out the door.

_I walked out into the hall outside our room. I then proceeded to walk up the stairs and out onto the deck of the ship._

"Smell that? That's some fresh sea air right here Riolu." I said, sniffing the air.

_I walked over towards the railing of the ship. While doing so a man called out to me._

"Hey kid!"

_I turned to look at him. He was a bigger man with jeans and a black shirt with tattered sleeves. He had a brown vest over it. He wore a pair of black shades and had receding hair. The jeans looked as if the color had bleed out of them and there was a cut on the upper part of the right leg. Next to him was a well-trained looking Sandslash. All in all he looked intimidating._

"Yes, can I help you?"

"That's a pretty fancy Riolu ya got there. I ain't seen one that color before."

"He is rarer than average Riolu. You see he's a shiny pokémon." I answered.

"Yup real cute feller. What you say you give me 'em and I'll give ya my Sandslash."

"Sorry sir, but I don't want to trade him."

"It wasn't a question son. Hand him over."

_My face turned stone cold._

"I said he's not up for trade." I said in a cold low voice.

"Well son I'm gonna have'ta take 'em from ya."

_I smirked._

"I'd like to see you try."

"I'll tell ya what. I battle you and if I win you give me yer Riolu, without givin' you my Sandslash. If you win… well that's not gonna happen."

"No, how about I tell YOU what. He's mine; it's not up for debate. Secondly, why don't you head back to 3rd grade and get that pathetic garble you call English language fixed. Then maybe I'll hold a conversation will you. Finally, why the hell would I agree to your shit battle?"

"Son, ya best get that there high horse perch out yer ass before I do it meself and shove it down yer throat. Secondly I'm gettin' that there Riolu, he'd fetch a mighty fine price."

"You're going to have to do a lot better than destroying your grammar even more, if that's even possible, and get off your wide ass."

"Alright son, you just made a death wish."

_He lunged at me with his fist drawn back. I saw what was coming and quickly sidestepped to my left. His fist went passed me and he knocked himself off balance. He fell over and landed on his face._

"What's the matter large lumps? Can't stand on your own feet?" I taunted.

_I could tell he was mad now. He quickly got up turned and swung at me again. I dodged to what was now my right. His fist collided with the hard metal of the wall he previously was leaning on. His arm buckled on impact and faster than you than you could blink his head collided as well. Apparently he had thrown his entire weight into that swing for he then fell onto the deck moaning._

"Well sir I must say after dealing with people like you throughout my childhood, you are one of the saddest suckers I have ever seen."

"S-sandslash, get 'em." The man spit out.

"Riolu," I called to the bipedal friend of my childhood, who had removed himself from me during the single person beat-up. "Force Palm."

_Riolu pressed his hand to Sandslash's forehead. Startling the said pokémon, Riolu released a shockwave that firmly but gently knocked Sandslash against the wall. The Sandslash fell to a sitting position and tried to get back up. It failed due to paralysis being inflicted upon it._

"I really feel sorry for you sir." I said. "Here Sandslash, eat this when your trainer manages to get up."

_I handed it a Cheri berry and walked away._

"And here I thought those kinds of people didn't exist here." I said half to myself, half to Riolu.

"Rii" Riolu responded, nodding sadly.

"Well I don't feel like seeing the ocean anymore. Let hit a restaurant. I almost forgot you haven't eaten yet."

"Olu" Riolu said as his stomach growled.

_I headed over to the restaurant where unknown to me, Ash, May and Brock had eaten yesterday. I ordered a sandwich and opened a container of Riolu's food._

"It was smart of Brock to put Rawst berry in your food, wasn't it?" I asked him.

"Olu" He said while eating.

"Yup you sure do enjoy it."

_Shortly after that my sandwich arrived. After finishing it, I checked the time._

"Well let's head back to the room. That thug pretty much killed any thought of doing something." I said.

_I started walking back towards the room. Taking a different route to completely avoid the area with the thug, I made it back to the hall. Looking at the number on the door, I thought something. Checking my semi intact Pokedex, I confirmed my thoughts._

"Hey Riolu, did you know that our room number is the same as your Pokedex number?"

"Ri?"

"Yeah, isn't that a coincidence?"

_I grabbed the doorknob and turned. I walked through door to see everyone checking their stuff._

"Almost ready to go then?" I asked.

"Yeah, we still have some time to wait though." Ash said.

"Well I know what I can do until then."

_I unclipped my Pokedex, sat down, crossed my legs, and began to experiment with it. Riolu hopped off my shoulder and watched. After checking his stuff, Ash wandered over watched as well. After making more drastic changes Ash commented._

"It doesn't really look like a Pokedex anymore."

"Yeah, I've changed it a lot haven't I?" I replied.

_I looked down at my handiwork. I had changed the shape more towards the design of the Unova Pokedex. Only instead of the second screen sliding from behind the first, the bottom section of it would flip on an axis in the Pokedex. Spinning 180 degrees, the second screen would be revealed, along with a small keypad. In this state I could search through the Pokedex as I desired. Flipping it back to its previous form, a small, thin plastic cover would slide from the top section on the back of the Pokedex protecting the second screen and the keypad; I could clip it back to my belt and be on my way. I slowly went back to messing with it._

"ATTENTION PASSENGERS, WE ARE NOW ARRIVING AT THE SINNOH REGION. PLEASE BE READY TO DEPART." The intercom stated.

"Well, let's head out guys." Brock said.

"The Sinnoh region, I wonder what it looks like." May stated.

"We'll soon find out May." I said.

_We walked outside into the hall and up the stairs. Once on deck, we saw the close approaching Sinnoh region. Soon after we reached a railing, the ship docked at the port._

"Wow, this is Sinnoh huh?" Ash asked.

"Yup" I said, turning to Brock I added "I think it's time to tell them."

"Really? You want to tell them so soon?" He asked.

"Yes I think it's time."

_Ash, May and Pikachu looked at me confused. It was expected._

"Let's head over to that bench over there" I said. "It's less populated, plus I feel eyes watching me."

"Uh, okay?" Ash said still confused.

_We walked over and I sat on the bench, it was far from the crowd of people getting on and off the ship. Ash and May stood in front of me. Brock sat on the other side of the bench and looked out into the ocean. Riolu hopped up onto my lap, and lied down, propping his head on my bag I had placed beside me._

"Okay so what is it you have to say?" May asked.

"Well… I'm not exactly who you think I am." I said slowly.

"How so?" Ash asked.

"Well I'm… Not really from Slateport in Hoenn. I never went to Petalburg, and when I fell from the sky… it wasn't because a bird pokémon attacked me."

"So you lied about that? Why?" May asked.

"Well I'm from… I guess you could say… I'm a visitor from another land. I'm a scientist from another dimension that came here accidentally by a self-experiment." I explained.

"What? What do you mean by dimension?"

"Well you remember all that stuff I said about dimension travel? And how I said that all of it was a failure? That was also a lie."

"So why all this lying? And how is that dimension travel stuff not a failure?" Ash asked.

"Well in my dimension, I built a machine that basically created a doorway into any dimension I chose. I would power on the machine, select which dimension to travel to, step inside the gate way, wait for the machine to power up and then I would arrive in the chosen dimesion. Which happened to be this one. And the reason I lied was… would anyone believe me if I told them I came from another dimension, plus people like Team Rocket and Team Aqua and Magma would probably want the technology. And they could get that from me. So I'm trying to keep a low profile."

"So you could go back and go to any dimension?" May asked.

"No. I had one way to go back and I forgot it back at my dimension. It was a remote like device that would project a small portal to send me back."

"If you had a small device that could send you back, why not make the whole thing portable like that?" May asked.

"It's not that simple, the return device was only programmed to send me back, and only had enough power for that one trip. The actual device has a much greater power supply and could send me almost anywhere."

"So you can't return?" Ash asked.

"Yes."

"Then you're stuck here?"

"As far as I can tell, I'm going nowhere fast."

"So how do we know this isn't a lie either?" May asked.

"You know, Brock asked me the same thing. So I'll give some proof. We will more than likely meet a girl. Her name will be Dawn and she'll want to be a coordinator, and follow in her mother's footsteps. She'll be coming from Twinleaf Town and have a Piplup as her starter pokémon."

"Really?" She said skeptically.

"At least give me the benefit of the doubt until we meet her."

"IF we meet her. If she's even a real person." May replied.

"Brock, help me out here?" I asked.

"Sorry I can't really help you prove your own case."

"But you believe me."

"Well…" he said slowly.

"I thought you said you believed me." _I was in disbelief._

"Well I've been thinking…" he said.

"So you don't anymore." I said, coming to my own conclusion.

"You know guys; I think we should believe him until we meet this Dawn person." Ash said.

"*sigh* Well alright Ash." May said finally.

"So what could you tell us about this whole dimension thing?"

"Well I made the machine like I said, and as I was waiting for the portal to send me, I forgot the return remote that allowed me to go back home. I was unable to retrieve it due to the portal rendering me unable to move. I tried to stop the machine, but my attempt failed. I guess the machine malfunctioned during the ordeal, because this actually wasn't where I intended to be."

"Wow so how did you meet Riolu?"

"That actually occurred sooner than you'd think…"

_I went on with my explanation. As soon as I had finished we noticed the sun was setting._

"Well we should probably head to the nearest town." Brock said.

"That would be in Twinleaf town." I said. "It's a little ways away from here." I said.

"This isn't so we can meet this Dawn person is it?" May asked.

"No it isn't. We'll probably meet her in Sandgem town."

_I didn't mention the fact that she would probably meet Mesprit at Lake Verity. And there would be a battle with Team Galactic at Mt. Coronet involving the three Lake Guardians, as well as Dialga and Palkia. As the image of the sun slowly died under the horizon, we head down the trail towards Twinleaf town._

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"Well I'm impressed." The dark clothed man said to himself. "He noticed my presence without even seeing me."

"_It also seems my hunch about this 'David' was right. That dimension travel seems real after all. His body language tells me all his secrets; he can't lie to me." He thought._

_The man slowly began to follow the group, sticking to the shadows._

"_That thug was not worth the money I hired him for; it is good I got my money back. Nevertheless, he helped me learn one crucial weakness for David. His overprotectiveness for his Riolu will be his downfall. I bet the boss would be pleased. I think I shall contact him."_

_The man activated his long-distance communicator and soon an image of a man in a suit wearing a top hat appeared on the screen on his wristwatch._

"I trust you have news on this dimension business?"

"Yes sir, I have confirmed that the information is one-hundred percent accurate, I all the info can be acquired from the man himself."

"That would involve abduction. Which will be more difficult."

"Fear not sir, I know a crucial weakness of his."

"And that is?" The now beret wearing man said.

"The man has a very protective nature over his Riolu. If we get his Riolu then he will bend to our demand." he said, unfazed by his boss's sudden headwear change.

"Hmm… interesting. What is your current location?"

"A forth of a mile from Twinleaf town." The man said, looking up to judge the distance.

"How intriguing it is that this man would be in the region we recently concurred. Very well, when you have arrived in Floaroma City you will find a group of minions at our base there. You will take his Riolu and get him to come to the base, once imprisoned he will be escorted to headquarters where we'll 'acquire' the info from him."

"He also seems to think that Team Galactic his still operating here."

"Heh, those weak incompetent fools couldn't have accomplished anything on their own. I'm glad we eliminated them."

"Yes sir, we showed them. Any other orders?"

"You shall strike this 'David' on Route 204 and then proceed with the plan."

"Yes sir" the man said looking back down at his boss (wearing a fedora) before the connection closed.

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"Well this is no good" Ash complained.

"It's so dark I can barely see in front of my face." I added.

_We heard a thud, followed by a moan of pain._

"You okay over there Brock?" I asked.

"Yeah… I walked into a tree."

"I think we should set up for the night" Ash said.

May groaned. "Yet again I am deprived a warm bed."

_She looked over at me and I felt pure terror as memory decided to remind me what happened last time._

"Please don't hurt me!" I shouted, raising my arms defensively.

_To my luck, she didn't do anything remotely harmful to me and instead prepared her sleeping bag with Brock and Ash. I sighed in relief and began to set up my own sleeping bag. As I did so, I was almost sure I felt someone watching us._

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**Okay so chapter eight, I'm pretty close to ten chapters. I think I'll consider that a milestone. Moving on to so business. I really need some poll votes guys. Not that many, 4 votes will be enough. I would like at least 7 votes but that seems like a stretch. I really am not sure which course of action to take. I could do any of the three, but I want to know which one you would be happiest with. I don't want to withhold chapters because I don't know how to continue. That would be an unpleasant thing for all of us. So please… at least 4 votes okay? That's all I ask. I hope you will cooperate.**

**Reviews:**

**Species Unknown: I don't think I would want to be David either, but in the world of Pokémon traveling with Ash and his friends with your favorite childhood pokémon friend by your side? That wouldn't be too bad.**

**UEG nastykiller: I'm glad to hear this is different than other stories. I was afraid it would end up being another OC character story people weren't too fond of. But, I shall continue to write, just for you (not really, more like for all my fans and loyal readers).**

**Favorites:**

**Special thanks to Djnila, UEG nastykiller, and ranger of shadows for favoriting this story. You guys rock!**


	9. A New Companion and Shattered Realities

**Okay chapter nine, I check my poll and saw the 1 vote I got. A little disheartening, but since there was only one, I can still make the decision for the rest of the story. If I got 2 votes, that would be a problem. I can still change the storyline based on that particular poll question, so I'm going to leave it up. But, if the vote doesn't change the story will be the same. Two characters appear for the first time this chapter. One of them was to be expected, but the second might be a shock.**

**Disclaimer: …**

**Ugh, Y U NO WORK DISCLAIMER!? What do I pay you for?**

**Disclaimer: You don't pay me…**

**Ahh, It talks! Kill it! Kill it with fire!**

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Chapter Nine – A New Companion and Shattered Realities

_I woke up to a bright light in my eyes._

"Augh! The sun?! It can't be morning already!" I complained, shielding my eyes.

"Nope! It's still dark, I just thought you looked uncomfortable on those twigs." Said a voice.

_The light faded away and I carefully removed my arms from my face to see May holding a flashlight. I groaned._

"Yup, you sound pretty uncomfortable. Might want to move those twigs."

_I crawled out of my sleeping bag and checked under it. There were no twigs under it. Slightly annoyed, I was going to ask May where the twigs where, but she was lying down in her sleeping bag. Deciding it was best not to bug her, I tried to go back to sleep. After what felt like forever, I checked the time on my Pokedex, 3:36 A.M. I decided to get up seeing as I couldn't sleep. I crawled out of my bag and slipped on my shoes and grabbed my hoodie. Riolu noticed my movement and started to get up._

"It's okay Riolu, don't get up. You need to sleep. Don't worry I won't be long, I'm just going for a walk."

"Olu?"

"I swear I'll be back before you know it."

"Lu"

_Riolu reluctantly lied back down and I began to walk into the forest, making sure I had marked where I was on my Pokedex map so as to not get lost, I journeyed on. After looking at the scenery and the sleeping pokémon, I came across a clearing. Walking into it I noticed it was actually an open spot near a lake._

"_Cool, this must be Lake Verity." I thought sitting against a tree._

_After gazing at the lake for a few minutes, I decided to head back. I had spent about twenty minutes wandering in the forest and about five looking at the lake. I got up from the tree when sudden movement caught my eye. I looked back at the lake to see a strange outline of a shape in the air above the lake. It was definitely strange, I could tell there was something there but I could also see the trees and grass behind it. It looked like small, fairy-like Pokémon. It had two tails with a leaf like shape at the ends. It had four long, drooping appendages coming from what appeared to be its head. I quickly pulled my Pokedex from my belt and activated the identifier._

"Mesprit, the emotion pokémon, known as "The Being of Emotion." It taught humans the nobility of sorrow, pain, and joy. Although it slumbers at the bottom of the lake, its spirit is said to leave its body and flitter on the water surface." The Pokedex said.

"That's Mesprit? Wait, if Dawn was supposed to see Mesprit at Lake Verity and I did instead… Shit."

"It shouldn't mess anything up too bad, right?" I said to myself.

"_Wrong. You've screwed up big time and you know it." My thoughts said._

"Hey, I can't choose what Mesprit does. Maybe it showed itself to me on purpose."

"_If you weren't here, it couldn't show itself to you."_

"That's not a very good argument you know that? Ugh, I'm talking to myself again. Even worse I'm arguing with myself."

"_I really need to stop that." I thought._

"_Yeah you should."_

"_Would you shut up, other me?"_

"_Hurtful, I have a name you know. I'm your conscience and reasonable thinking."_

"_Okay 'conscience' it's still weird to talk to you."_

"_Still hurtful."_

"_I meant I'm still technically talking to myself."_

"_True. You should probably head back. Mesprit went away awhile ago."_

"*sigh*"

_I began walking back to the temporary camp to see the sun begin to rise. "How long was I gone? It couldn't have been that long." I thought. As I reached the camp I saw the others packing away their things. "I was gone that long…"_

"Yo David, there you are. We were wondering where you had gone." Brock called out.

"I took a walk, couldn't sleep."

"Oh well we're heading towards Twinleaf town again."

_I gathered all my things and put them back in my bag. Riolu, who had woken up a few minutes ago, jumped on my bag to his usual spot after I put it on._

**Boring Moments of walking in Silence**

_We had finally reached the outskirts of Twinleaf town. Only to find out from a passerby that there was a port in Twinleaf town. A smaller, less busy one, but a port nonetheless, one that our ferry could have visited._

"Well, if we had arrived here first, we wouldn't have had to go through that forest" I commented.

"And spend the night there." Brock added.

"Don't remind me." May complained.

_From where we left the forest, we would have to pass the port to get to main part of town. This wouldn't be too bad, except that another ferry had arrived and passengers getting off. That meant people, people mean crowds, crowds meant traffic, and that meant it could take a while. We began walking through the crowds of people, dodging and weaving around them trying to get through. I'm not sure when but eventually I lost track of the others and got separated. As I was searching for them, I didn't notice the person in front of me, who was also distracted from where they were walking. THUD! "Ow, what was that?" I thought. "I guess I bumped into someone." I got up of the ground, and began my apology._

"I'm sorry; I wasn't watching where I was going." I began.

_I then fully got up and saw who I bumped into. It was a girl, about mine and Ash's age. I'm guess from appearance. She had brown eyes and brown hair which curled towards her front and the top of her hair had two parts that stuck out kind of like fins. The reminded me of the wings on a latias. In between her 'fins' she wore a white hat. She had an olive green shirt with a white collar and a single button at the top and she wore a white skirt. She had pink shoes and black socks that rose slightly above the ankle._

"No it was my fault; I wasn't paying attention at all." She said.

_I had zoned out. "She is beautiful, and has such a nice voice." I thought._

"Um, hello? Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I zoned out for a second." I said.

"Oh, well I'm sorry I bumped into you."

"It's alright, although I think it was more my fault. I was looking for my friends, I got separated from them. By the way my name is David, and this is my childhood friend and partner Riolu."

"Rilu" Riolu greeted a little nervous.

_I stuck out my hand, offering a handshake. She returned it, with a soft yet firm grasp._

"My name is Bianca, nice to meet you. Your Riolu is such an interesting color; I don't think they're normally like that, are they?"

"_Bianca… Where have I heard that name before?" I thought. "I definitely know it from somewhere…"_

"He's a shiny pokémon so that's why he's yellow, but normally they're blue. It's nice to meet you as well. I take it you just got off the ferry?" I asked.

"Yes that's right. I'm an artist and I'm taking a vacation so I decided to sketch some of the Sinnoh region." She replied. "But since you're looking for friends, I'll help you."

"Okay, thank you. We were trying to get through the crowd of people before we got separated." I said as we began walking.

"Oh did you get off a ferry too?" She asked.

"No my friends and I came here yesterday from the Kanto region. My friend is a trainer and he wants to compete in the Sinnoh League. I'm travelling with him hoping to explore the region. And my other friend is a coordinator; she's hoping to compete in the Sinnoh Grand Festival." I answered.

"Oh such different reasons for travel, yet you're all travelling together. How wonderful!" She said.

"Yeah. Oh, hey there they are!" I said.

_We began to walk over to them, but as we got close Bianca called out._

"Ash?"

"Bianca! It's good to see you again." Ash said.

"Hi Bianca." Brock said.

"Hello Ash, Hello Brock."

"_Now I remember. This is Bianca from Alto Mare. So that is how they know each other." I thought as we continued walking._

"So Bianca, what are you doing here?" Ash asked.

"Well I'm on vacation from Alto Mare, so I came here for a little sightseeing and to sketch some different pokémon, but then I bumped into your friend David after I got of the ferry."

"So how do you know Bianca, Ash?" May asked.

"I met her when I visited Alto Mare earlier in my journey." Ash answered.

"And he helped save the town from being flooded by two Team Rocket members." Bianca added.

"Well, I didn't do it alone." Ash said slightly embarrassed.

"That's right he had Misty, Latios, Latias and me to help him." Brock said.

"That's true." Ash said.

"So you had helped save another town from destruction?" May asked.

"A regular hero." Brock said.

"Yeah." I added.

"So how is Latias doing?" Ash asked.

"She's doing fine, she was sad when I left." Bianca said. "By the way, Ash, did you ever get that sketch I had Latias send you?"

"Yeah I did. It was awesome. Pikachu liked it too." Ash answered.

"Pika pika"

"I'm glad you liked it." Ash said.

_Suddenly a girl came from nowhere and found me in the way. Thud!_

"Ow! My face!" I screamed in pain, falling backwards.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was in a hurry." The girl said. "My name's Dawn, I'm on my way to Sandgem town."

"Oh, are you perhaps starting your journey?"

"Why yes, I am." Dawn replied. "I'm going to be a coordinator. Just like my mom. Oh look at the time! I'm going to be late!"

_She took off running and was gone over the hill. I smirked and slowly turned to Brock, May, and Ash._

"She was a nice person." I said with double meaning. "And what a neat name, Dawn. And she wants to follow in her mom's footsteps. Isn't that sweet."

"Okay we get it. You were right." May said.

"Yeah so you knew about Dawn, okay." Brock added.

_Bianca looked at us confused._

"Um, I 'm missing something here." She asked.

"David said he built a machine that could travel through dimensions, and that he is from a different one. And he said he knew what we would do because we're not real." Ash answered.

_I couldn't believe my ears. "Did he just…?"_

"Ash! Why! Why, did you tell her!?" I asked in disbelief.

"Nice one Ash." May said.

"Ugh, why me?"

"So this is true?" Bianca asked.

"As true as you believe." I replied slightly said.

"_She probably thinks I'm crazy and lying. What a great impression to make!" I thought sarcastically._

"I don't think you're one of those people who like to lie. I think you're telling the truth."

"Really? So you believe me?"

"Yes, but where is this machine of yours?"

"That's just it. It wasn't portable to begin with. I'm trapped here. I had a way to go back, but I was unable to retrieve it before I was sent here."

"That's awful. So you can't go home? I couldn't image what I would do if that happened to me."

"It's not so bad. I don't really have much to go back to." I said with a ting of sadness.

"I'm sorry." She said trying to comfort me.

"Don't be, it's not your fault. I've dealt with my pain a long time ago."

"Okay, hey Ash do you mind if I travel with you for a while?"

_I stopped paying attention. I was too busy thinking about what to do. "Do I really want to go back? I said it myself, there's nothing really to go back to. All I have is that house and my research. Is that all I want to do in my life? Live alone? I don't even have the slightest clue as to get back."_

"_You have to try…"_

"_Why? Why, do I need to go back?"_

"_You don't belong here…"_

"_Yeah, well apparently I didn't belong there either. Who's to say I won't be better off here?"_

"_This is just fiction. A cartoon made up by people in Japan. You're from the real world."_

"_But the I.D.T. 2046 changed that, and you know it did! It turns fiction to reality, I've made this real! Right now this is real!"_

"_If that's wh-"_

"Heeey David? You in there? Heelloooo." Ash said snapping me out of my internal argument. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. It's… it's nothing."

"Okay, well Bianca decided to travel with us."

"Alright, it's nice to have you with us, Bianca. We should head to Sandgem town." I said, not really putting feeling in my words.

_I slowly began to walk, in the same direction Dawn had gone. I didn't really look back to see if the others were following me. Riolu sensed my distraught feelings and tried to comfort me._

**Temporary Thirdperson**

_David slowly began to walk away, with his head down and his hands in his hoody pockets. His Riolu tried to give him some comfort as they walked slowly away._

"That man has had a troubled past…" Bianca said, looking onward at David and his Riolu.

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**Okay chapter nine, this is so close to ten, ten chapters, seems like a while since I started. But we still have more to go through. Who knows how long it will be? The weirdly indented text is something that happened in word. I started messing up for some reason, making these weird indents. Hopefully it stops soon… Here are the review replies.**

**Species Unknown: Yeah travelling would be fun, but the 'creepy guy' seems more like a spy don't you think? And from Team Rocket too. Wonder what Team Rocket is doing in Sinnoh…**

**Digimon9000100: Thank you! I'm glad you like the story. I try to update as soon as possible, but sometimes there are delays.**

**yankiwi(Guest): I was planning on Team Galactic having an existence in here. But I think my twist to the story should be interesting. Riolu evolving was something I hadn't really thought about. I'll have to think more on it. As for Dawn, I didn't really expect that one either, but I can probably use that in here somehow. Oh and here's your chapter.**


	10. Separation of Friends

**Okay, here's chapter ten. Okay this might be the last chapter until after Christmas… Maybe. I'll be back after Christmas Day though. So you can threaten me for another chapter then, or not… I don't know how much you guys demand these chapters. But, man. Ten chapters, that's a milestone in my books. Except I don't have any books… Hmm. Well this is weird. Anyway, sadly due to my horrible failure to remember the Anime, this whole story will probably be a bad mix of the anime, the games, and my own twist. So, I hope everyone's okay with that. If not, well too bad, I can't really do better at the moment. I'm lazy. By the way I know I said I don't care about reviews anymore, but that doesn't mean I won't welcome them and reply to them. Plus a good story can be made great if the audience is involved and given what they want, and the best we to do that is reviews, so don't hesitate if you decide to give me a piece of your mind. But, make it friendly okay? Don't write out your hate at me, because I can write it back and let's not ruin the story with my hateful review replies at the bottom, okay? Just saying. Also, I appreciate suggestions for the story, but they won't necessarily be put in the story. So go read the story I took longer than I should have to write, or if you skipped this block of text entirely and are already reading it, you should read these too. I sometimes post important stuff in here. Sometimes. So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Kwanza, gift-giving, whatever you celebrate, enjoy it, and if you don't celebrate anything you should. Don't be so anti-social. At least have a get-together or something.**

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Chapter Ten – Separation of Friends

**David's POV(I said it was temporary…)**

"_Do I really want to go home? I mean what would do I even have there? Nothing. No family, I wouldn't have been in that hell hole of an orphanage if they cared. No friends, they all left after high school. I don't even know where any of them are. And anyone else I meet is just after my money. It would figure, all anyone ever wants is money. I didn't even want all that money anyway, that's why I gave it to charity, and they would make better use of it than I would. They only person I really have is Riolu, and he couldn't even come with me, if I left. They government would take him or some thug would. I wouldn't even be able to hide him."_

"_You don't belong here…"_

"_Shut up! You're not helping, okay? If I shouldn't stay then why don't you tell me way I should go?"_

"…"

"_That's what I thought. This is practically a land of opportunity. I can become a trainer like I always wanted; I can catch pokémon and challenge gyms. I can complete the Pokedex after finding all the pokémon."_

"_You never did that in the games."_

"_You're a killjoy you know that? Just because I never did it in the games, doesn't mean I can't IN the game. And you know it was a lot more difficult in the games. Plus all you have to do here is look at them and they're added. So I don't even have to catch them."_

"_You wouldn't use them all anyway."_

"_You're right. I wouldn't want them to sit in some PC box forever. You know, I'm getting off subject here. I thought I was pondering whether or not to go home."_

"_Yes, and I was going to say-"_

"Hey, David! Hold on!"

_I turned to Ash and the others running up to me. In my mental conversation I guess I forgot I wandered off on my own._

"Are you okay?" Bianca asked seeming concerned.

"Don't worry, I'm fine." I replied.

"So you wanna head over to Sandgem town then?" Ash asked.

"Sure, let's go."

_We walked the remaining distance out of Twinleaf town and headed onto Route 201. It was a pretty boring walk, I took the time to think about what I wanted to do pertaining to whether to leave this dimension or not. I must say, I'm getting sick of my mental battles, they are not really helpful. The mostly lead me from thinking about it. Hmm. Maybe that's what my other 'self' is trying to do… I'll have to confront him… er, I mean me about it. Anyway we soon made it to Sandgem town and we headed over to Professor Rowan's lab. We entered the lab and introduced ourselves to Professor Rowan. We talked a little, well I didn't I was too busy thinking. Professor Rowan gave Ash and May upgrades to their Pokedexs. I didn't need one since I had mine included already. I think I heard a little about Ash being registered for the Pokémon league, and where May could register for contests. I heard a little about Dawn coming here a little while ago. And her choosing Piplup as her starter. I felt Bianca glance at me, but I paid no heed. I heard Ash introduce me and I said a polite hello before I went back to thinking. I could tell Riolu was concerned about me continuous thinking, but I gave him a quick reassuring glance. Soon after we left and headed for the Pokémon Center as the sun went down. As we went to get rooms there, we encountered a small problem._

"Um guy's there's five of us and only four beds to a room." Brock said.

"Well what should we do then?" Bianca asked.

"Well we could split up so one person isn't alone in a room." May suggested.

"That's sounds good." Ash said.

"I'm guessing the simple guys in one room girls in the other?" I asked.

"Why not?" May said. "Any complaints?"

_No one said any._

"Well then that's settled." Brock said as we all headed up to the rooms.

_Brock, Ash, and I headed into our room, the third one on the left side of the hall, and Bianca and May headed into the one next to us on the right. Inside the room was basically what you would expect, a square room with two bunk beds, one on the left, and one on the right. Against the wall between them was a small dresser with a window above it. Brock claimed the top bunk on the left and Ash took the one underneath him. I took the bottom one on the right. I took off my bag and leaned it against the bed, I then unzipped my hoodie the rest of the way and folded it neatly on my bag. Afterwards I crawled into the bed and Riolu crawled beside me. Saying our goodnights to each other we all drifted off to slept, although I swore I heard Ash whisper goodnight to May. I smiled on the inside and drifted off as well._

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_I woke up to Riolu poking me._

"Ugh. Okay I'm up." I muttered.

_Yeah… not much to remember about waking up a part from that… I was really tired, and half-asleep. But I do remember waking up to eat. But, that was pretty boring. So I'll skip ahead. I walked outside with the others and we headed for Jubilife City._

"You know I heard there is a store in Jubilife that sells Pokétches." I said.

"Huh, what are those?" Ash asked.

"Well they're basically watches but they come with all sorts of helpful apps that can help you on your journey." I explained.

"Cool, I want one." Bianca said.

"Why would I need one when I can do it the old fashioned way, right Pikachu?" Ash asked.

"Pika!"

"Ash, there's a reason it called the old fashioned way." May complained.

_Just then, a large, pink, mechanical hand came from nowhere and grabbed Pikachu. Apparently it had a friend, for another came about and grabbed Riolu._

"What the…?!" Brock shouted.

"Riolu!" I shouted.

"Pikachu!" Ash also shouted.

"What's going on?!" I exclaimed.

"Hahahahaha" came a trio of voices.

"Listen is that a voice I hear?" asked a female voice.

"It's speaking to me loud and clear." A male voice answered.

"Melting on the wind…"

"Past the stars…"

"And in yer ear!" A new voice said.

"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace…!"

"Dashing hope putting fear in its place…!"

"A rose by any other name is just as sweet...!"

"When everything's worse our works complete."

"Jessie!"

"And it's James!"

"And Meowth, now dat's a name!"

"Putting the do-gooders in their place…" Said Jessie.

"…Team Rocket…" James added.

"…In yer face!"… Meowth finished.

_Three figures, the female, Jessie, the male, James, and a meowth, named Meowth, stood in a hot air balloon shaped like a Meowth that was up in the sky._

"Team Rocket!" said everyone but Bianca and myself. (**A/N: Yeah, I didn't forget about them.")**

"Who's Team Rocket?" Bianca asked.

"Give me back Riolu right now, you worthless trash!" I shouted.

"Trash!?" Listen to me you no good twerp, you wouldn't know beauty if it struck you in the face!" Jessie shouted.

"You're right, if it was your 'beauty' I'd probably be killed by it. Now give me back Riolu!"

"Why you little…!"

"Easy Jessie, let's focus on the task at hand!" James said.

"Yea, we got da twerps' pokémon, now let's get outa here!"

"Fine, I still don't like that twerp."

"Swellow, go!" Ash called, releasing said pokémon. "Use Ariel Ace on that balloon!"

"Swellow!"

_Swellow flew up towards the balloon at blinding speed, disappearing right before the balloon, only to reappear on the other side. I thought it was strange as the balloon had no damage at all. Swellow flew back to us surprised._

"What? How is that balloon still in the air?" Ash asked surprised.

"Hahahahaha" laughed the trio. "We reinforced our balloon with a tougher material! It can't be cut!"

"Ash! I have an idea! Has your Swellow ever carried someone before?" I asked.

"Um, no he hasn't. Why?" Ash replied.

"Well, if you're willing, I would like to ride Swellow up to the balloon!"

"What!? That's crazy!" May shouted.

"Hmm, how about it Swellow? Think you can do it?" Ash asked.

Swellow, not wanting its pride hurt, replied in agreement. "Swellow! Swel swellow!"

"Alright then. Let's go for it!" Ash said.

_Swellow bent a little to allow me to climb on, which I did a little awkwardly._

"_You're out of your mind."_

"_That's a funny statement coming from a voice in my head." I thought back._

"_You're still crazy."_

"_Hey, we both saw the results of that test; I'm only 26% crazy."_

"_That doesn't make a difference."_

"_Whatever."_

_Swellow flew straight up towards the balloon, I tried to hold on as well as I could. Swellow was definitely not big enough to carry a human, no matter how much I weighed. We flew in close to the arm with Pikachu on it. I would rather have gone for Riolu first but Pikachu was okay. I leap off Swellow and grabbed on to the arm._

"What's that twerp doing!?" Jessie screamed. "Meowth, shake him off!"

_The arm began swinging wildly in attempt to throw me off._

"Agh! Screw you hag! I'm not letting go!"

"Why you…! Meowth, give me that!" Jessie shouted, snatching the remote.

_If possible, the arm swung even more wildly. I slowly inched towards Pikachu; emphasis on slowly. I didn't want to fall off as Swellow wouldn't be able to handle catching me. Luckily I had grabbed on close to the hand, so I didn't have to go far. Soon I reached Pikachu; I carefully reached into my pocket and pulled out my screwdriver. I found a screw and began loosening it, which was incredibly difficult to do when you're on a swinging arm. It took me awhile to get the screwdriver on the screw, but I managed to do that and loosen the screw. After maybe five painfully long minutes the screw came out. I figured there would be more, but the hand suddenly released Pikachu. He fell a little ways until Swellow caught him, taking him to Ash down below. I don't know how far down below, I didn't look because THAT would be a bad idea._

"Agh! That twerp freed Pikachu!" Jessie sounded really pissed.

"Not to worry…! Go Cacnea! Use Pin Missile!" James shouted. "Ow! I didn't mean on me!"

_Cacnea let go of James's face and launched the attack. "You've got to be shitting me…" I thought; right before the attack hit me._

"Auuuughhhhh!" I screamed. "That REALLY hurt! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"He's still hanging on? Use it again, Cacnea!"

"Oh come on- Owwwwwww!"

_I felt blood running down my legs, which felt like they were on fire. My bag had protected my back… mostly._

"Swellow, Pikachu! Let's help David out!" Ash yelled.

_As their attacks flew overhead the swinging arm stopped. Making it easier to turn around and climb towards the balloon, since I couldn't reach Riolu here. I made great progress across the arm, and I was soon at the balloon's basket. Luckily, Team rocket was distracted, so I carefully tried to climb into the basket to get the remote. That would have worked but my legs bucked slightly from the pain and I fell into the basket._

"Hey, how did da twerp get up here!?" Meowth cried.

_I quickly got up and lunged for the controls, only to get knocked back be Jessie._

"You made a terrible mistake coming up here, twerp!" She spit the word 'twerp' out.

"Give… me… my… Friend!" I lunged again.

"Not on yer life! Fury Swipes!" Meowth shouted, lunging at me at the same time.

_He clung to my face, scratching the ever-loving crap out of it. Never felt a Fury Swipes on the face before? Let's just say anyone who had before, such as Ash, got lucky. They got slashed, maybe twice? I'm pretty sure I got more than that. I stumbled backwards with Meowth on my face. I grabbed him and managed to throw him off, and into Jessie's face. Unfortunately, I was still off-balance. I fell back and the side of the basket must have been weakened, because it broke under me. I fell more and realized I was no longer in the balloon._

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Riolu!" I screamed.

_I was absolutely terrified. I finally saw how high up in the air I was… Way higher than anyone would like. Still screaming, I fell through the air spinning. I saw everything spin, sky, ground, sky, ground, sky, pond. Wait, pond? There was a pond underneath me._

"_Great… That's so much better."_

"_What is it because you can'-"_

_Splash! Hitting the water felt like hitting concrete. All my senses flooded with fear as I tried to swim back to the surface. I had fallen pretty deep; farther than I had ever been in water. I struggled to swim up, swirling my arms around quickly. I felt myself go down deeper, and my legs began to numb from the cold water and the pain from the previous pokémon attacks. Soon I couldn't move them at all as I felt my air supply disappearing. Then it was gone and I struggled hard to move, coldness swept over me entirely. I tried to keep my mouth closed as I knew that opening it would be the worst thing to happen. Sadly, my willpower faltered and my mouth opened, flooding with water that rushed down my throat. I felt my limbs numb out, as everything faded into darkness. Right before I passed out I felt something wrap around my abdomen._

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_I woke up coughing up large amounts of water. Very slowly I felt my vision return and I sat up._

"*cough* Ughhh. Wha… what's going on?" I asked.

"Phew, that was scary. You had us worried, David." Ash said.

"You nearly drowned, we were all worried." Bianca added.

"Yeah, we had to resort to mouth-to-mouth." Brock said.

"Um, who-who did that?"

"Well um… that person would rather not be known." May said slowly.

_I shuddered, either from cold or the thought of who gave me mouth-to-mouth, but something else came to my mind._

"Where is *cough* where is Riolu?"

_My question was met with silence._

"Where is he?" I asked again.

_Bianca came up to me and placed her had on my shoulder._

"I'm sorry David, Team Rocket got away… They took Riolu." She said sadly.

_All I felt was a mixture of sadness and anger. No. Not anger… rage, pure uncontrolled rage. Hate, rage, sadness, and disappointment in myself was it, nothing else. I quickly moved away from Bianca and the others, and towards a tree. I quickly punched it, letting out my anger. Blood came from my knuckles, but I didn't stop._** (A/N: Warning, the following is slightly more graphic than the rest of the story. P.S. Remember the anger issues I said David had? Yeah…)**

"WHY!? WHY DID YOU TAKE HIM!? YOU GODDAMN BASTARDS! I'LL KILL YOU ALL! GIVE HIM BACK! AAAAUUUUGGGHHH!"

_I punched the tree again, feeling a crack in my hand. Pain flooded it only making me angrier. I instead kicked it, releasing anger that way. _

"I'LL FIND YOU, FUCKERS! YOU MESSED WITH THE WRONG PERSON! I'LL CUT OUT YOUR ENTRAILS, STUFF THEM DOWN YOUR THOAT AND OUT YOUR ASSES! I'LL… I'LL…"

_I collapsed on the ground, tears streaming down my face._

"I just want him back… I just want him here…"

_I heard someone come up behind me, and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned slowly to see who it was._

"It's alright David." Bianca said gently. "I'm sure we'll get him back."

"I hope so; he's my only friend…"

"He's not your only friend, we're here to."

"Yeah, your right."

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**Well, that was certainly different huh? Yeah some conflicting emotions in this one. And it kind of kills the holiday spirit, doesn't it? That was purely unintentional, I assure you. This will probably be the last one before the holidays, seeing as this one took forever. Had a little bit of a writer's block, but I broke that block with my Iron pickaxe (a.k.a. the Team Rocket part, and yes it's a Minecraft reference.) So yeah, can't think of much else to say.**

**Review Replies:**

**Species Unknown: This reply will sound strange after the chapter, but… Yeah, Bianca. Don't you just love unexpected surprises?**


	11. Awkward Moments

**Insert stuff to say here. (I've got nothing.)**

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Chapter Eleven – Awkward Moments

_I sat on the ground with nothing but my pants on. Unfortunately, my unwanted swim had soaked all my clothes, my hoodie, shirt, and my undershirt. The undershirt was really one of those shirts that are kind of skin tight, and made to retain body heat. I REALLY don't like the cold. And with it being autumn and all. My shoes were flooded and my socks didn't fare much better. I removed my socks as soon as possible, I absolutely hate the feeling of soaked socks. My pants were drenched too, mostly with blood, but I'd rather keep those on for rather obvious reasons… Bianca was currently trying to rub my face scratches with a cloth dipped in antiseptic._

"I'm telling you, I'm fine."

"No you're not. Those wounds should be treated." Bianca argued.

"Bianca is right, David. Those are some nasty cuts. Meowth really did a number on you." Brock added.

"Yeah, remind me to return the favor. I got a straight razor I could put to good use."

"That's going pretty far don't you think?" Ash asked.

"Have you ever felt a straight razor?"

"No…"

"Trust me Ash. It hurts." Brock said.

"You've been scratched by Meowth before, right Ash?" I asked.

"Yeah, but only like once or twice at a time."

"Well let's just say my face feels like it went through a paper shredder made from straight razors."

"Ouch."

"That's an understatement."

"Okay David, I finished with your face, how do your legs feel?" Bianca asked.

"Like wet tissue paper. I think after I'm done with Meowth, I'll take that Cacnea of James' and shove it right up his-"

"Okay David! We get the picture; you're pissed off right now." May interrupted.

"No shit I'm pissed. They shredded my legs and my face, and they stole Riolu, because of what? Because I tried to stop them from stealing a Pikachu their f-ing boss probably doesn't give a shit about? F**k them."

"David, please calm down. Let me see how bad your legs are." Bianca said gently.

_I let out a sigh and rolled up my pant legs._

"_Wow what was that? You never calm down that easily."_

"_Shut. Up. Now."_

"You know David this would be easier if your pants weren't in the way." Bianca said. **(A/n: That is NOT sex related in any way shape or form. This is sticking to a T rating so get your head out of the gutter. A.k.a. don't think dirty thoughts for those of you who might not understand the saying. And yes there are some who might not.)**

"They is no way I'm taking off my pants. Ever."

"You'll have to change pants eventually." May said.

"One: Little creepy. Two: Not that literally. No one is seeing me without my pants on."

"Okay, so what about Team Rocket?" Ash asked, changing the subject.

"Who knows where they could've gone?" Brock asked.

"Right, they could have gone anywhere." May added.

"Hah, I bet they probably have some hideout somewhere and are staying there." I said.

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_Oh, but in this case David was wrong. For the trio of wannabe thieves were currently in their balloon, already past Jubilife City and Floaroma City and on their way to Eterna City._

"I can't believe the new Boss wanted us to do this mission!" Jessie said excitedly.

"I can't believe we actually pulled it off." James said.

"Not really, we still didn't get da twerp's Pikachu." Meowth said.

"Yeah, but we got what the Boss wanted didn't we?" James asked.

"What's so special about this pokémon anyway?" Jessie asked.

"Didn't you dopes learn nothin'? That Riolu's a shiny! Those are pretty rare. I can see why da Boss would want it." Meowth answered.

"Yeah but the Boss told us to take it to another member in Eterna City." James said. "He said that the other guy needed it for some plan."

"Yeah some sorta ambush, right?" "Something to do with that new twerp."

"Oh, how I hate that little brat. If I could get my hands on him." Jessie said angrily.

"Ri rilu, ri ri rilu! Ri olu ri rilu"

"Hey you better watch it runt! Ain't nobody talks about us dat way!" Meowth replied.

"Meowth, care to translate?" James asked.

"He said that 'You Team Rocket types are just a bunch of jokes! You people are not even the real deal! When David gets here you're all going to be sorry!' "

"Yeah right!" Jessie said sarcastically. "That twerp is just some emotional stupid nobody."

"Ri ri olu ri lu." Riolu said with a smug grin.

"Meowth?" James asked again.

"Uh, I'd rather not translate dat." Meowth said.

"Meowth, just translate it already! I want to hear what this pathetic pokémon said!" Jessie said.

"Okay then… he said 'If he's just some stupid nobody then how did he outsmart some dumb, ugly bitch with bad hair and anger management issues?' "

_Jessie's eyebrow twitched. James crawled to the opposite corner of the basket. Meowth cringed._

"What!? Why that little puny little bastard! I'm gonna tear him limb from limb!" Jessie shouted while grabbing Meowth and shaking him in anger.

"Gwah, please don't shoot da messenger!" Meowth pleaded.

_Jessie threw Meowth into Riolu's cage and began to shake the cage violently._

"Jessie wait! The Boss said not to harm him in any way!" James shouted.

"Fine, whatever. Let's just drop this thing off."

_The balloon began its descent towards the edge of town, near a building where a small group of people were waiting. The balloon landed, and the trio stepped out._

"Well it's about time you three." Said the figure standing in front of the others, he appeared to be the leader. "Do you have him?"

"Yes sir" Jessie replied.

_Meowth headed back to the balloon and pulled out Riolu's cage._

"Ah excellent. Now we can proceed with the plan. You two, take the captive inside! Do not harm him and you two…!"

_He pointed to two figures, one male and one female, in strange grey outfits. They both had the same one, but the woman had a more feminine style to hers. They both had the same strange green bowl cut hairstyle. On the front of their uniforms was a gold G, with a red R over it._

"You two head over to the rendezvous and wait for the target, when you spot him radio me."

"Sir, yes sir." They both groups said before heading off to complete their orders.

"Um, what about us sir?" James asked.

"You three, go get on with your lives, you're not needed anymore."

"Um, what about our payment?" Jessie asked.

"Oh whatever, here, now get out of my sight!"

"Yes sir!"

_The trio grabbed their reward and headed back into their balloon before flying off away from the City._

"And now…" The dark figure said. "Phase two begins."

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_I walked with my hands in my hoodie and my hood over my head, looking down at the ground. People probably thought I was depressed, but I really just felt worried._

_I had all my clothes back; they dried a little while ago. I really couldn't stop thinking about Riolu. Was he okay? Has Team Rocket hurt him? Was he hungry? Are they starving him? All these thoughts kept running through my mind. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just really hope he's okay._

_We had finally reached Jubilife City; I was hoping I could find some clues as to where Team Rocket could be. We decided we should check the Pokémon Center first. Just as we arrived there we met Dawn._

"Hey it's you guys again!" Dawn shouted.

"Hello Dawn, it's nice to see you again." Brock said.

"Nice to see you Dawn." Ash said.

"Hi Dawn." May and Bianca both said.

_I hadn't said anything, as I was still thinking… until May elbowed me in the side. Hard._

"Ow what was that for?" I asked.

"Don't be rude. Dawn is here, say hi." May said.

"What? Oh, sorry I was lost in my thoughts. It's nice to see you Dawn, how are you?" I asked.

"I'm fine thank you. I just went and bought a Pokétch. See? Isn't cool?"

"So, you bought a watch?" Ash asked.

"It's not just a watch! It has all of these apps you can get for it to help you with your pokémon!"

"Yeah we kinda heard that from David already." Ash said.

"Yeah I told them a little about Pokétches." I said.

"Oh, well that saves a speech. I'm not good at those."

"More like an informative lecture. I hate those."

"I hate them too! They take way too much time. Hey, where's your Riolu? Is Nurse Joy healing him?"

"Oh… yeah…"

_I sat down on the nearby bench and stopped talking._

"_What am I doing? I should be searching for Riolu not having small talk! I have to go find him. I can't just stay here. I should leave now."_

"_But everyone is talking with Dawn, plus you all just got here. You can't ask them to leave."_

"_Then I'll just look for Riolu alone. I won't take that long anyway."_

"_I'm not sure that is the wisest choice of action."_

"_What are you? Reason?"_

"_Um, yeah."_

"_Oh, right. Anyway, I'm searching for him."_

"_I guess I can't stop you. I'm reasoning, not willpower."_

_I quickly sat up from the bench and ran out of the Center and into the streets._

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**Third Person POV**

"Huh? Hey, David where are you going?" Ash called out as David left the Center.

"What is he doing?" May asked.

"Is he upset?" Bianca asked.

"Did I say something wrong?" Dawn asked.

"Well, David's… He's… I'll just say it. Team Rocket stole David's Riolu." Brock answered.

"Oh, that's terrible. How could those thieves continue to be so horrible?" Dawn said sadly. "Wait… You don't think he ran out there to look for him?"

"Alone? We should go help him!" Ash said.

"Why couldn't he just wait?" May asked.

"Why would he? Why should he? That's his pokémon. You wouldn't wait if it was Ash's Pikachu would you?" Bianca said.

"I'm going to help him." Ash said determinedly. "He's the reason Team Rocket didn't take Pikachu. I think I should return the favor."

_Ash began to walk out of the Center._

"Ash wait I'm coming with you!" May shouted. "I don't want you to go alone. I want to be with you, where ever you go."

"I'm going too." Bianca said, walking over rather awkwardly.

"Brock, are you going to join us?" Ash asked.

"As much as I'd like to, I need to restock our supplies. You should be fine though."

"I'll help you with that Brock. I have nothing to do here." Dawn offered.

_Ash, May and Bianca headed out after David. Having no idea where he went, they decided to head for the north end of town. They hoped to find him on the way. If not they would just check another side of town._

**Meanwhile…**

**Back to David's POV**

"_If only I knew where to look…"_

"_Hindsight's 20-20"_

"_Please shut up."_

_I had made my way to an edge of town. I couldn't tell what direction, I hadn't paid attention to where I went when I left._

"_Hmmm, think. If this is somehow related to the game... Then I would meet a criminal organization member sometime, right?'_

"_No, this is like the cartoon, remember?"_

"_Thanks for being SO motivational."_

_The buildings of the city were just beginning to end when I came to the edge of a forest. It was there I heard voices coming from a nearby camp. I decided I would ask these people if they could assist me. I was walking up to where a column of smoke was rising when I heard some interesting information._

"So do you think the target will show up?" Said a female voice.

"I don't know, who cares? The Boss isn't here to watch over us." A male voice answered.

_I crept up behind some bushes, planning to eavesdrop for more info. I found a perfect spot underneath a tree where there was a lot of foliage, excellent for hiding in._

"You're right, the Boss ISN'T here… What do you say we do something more interesting?" the female voice said… rather seductively?

"_Wait… WHAT!?"_

_The two figures engaged in a somewhat passionate looking lip lock, before they began to strip each other's clothes off. _**(A/N: Yeah okay, I lied. I typed this at seven in the morning with no sleep. At least it will never get explicit.)**

"WHAT THE F**K!?"

_I leap out of the bushes in utter surprise._

"Ahh, oh my god!" The male shouted, surprised.

"Wahh, what the hell!? Pervert!" the female screamed.

"I'm no pervert! You were supposed to be giving me information about your plans! Not doing…! Oh, GOD!" I shouted back.

"Information? You eavesdropper! What makes you think we'd tell you anything!?" the woman screamed again.

"Well nothing now! You people were too busy tearing each other's clothes off!" I shouted back.

"Yeah, well we WERE enjoying it!"

"I don't want to know that! Jesus, just give me the info!"

"What info!?"

"WHERE THA F**K IS RIOLU!?" I was losing my patience. "WHERE IS MY FRIEND!?"

"Well…" _She took a step towards me._ "I could tell you… for a small price…"

_She traced her finger on my shoulder seductively. I slapped her across the face knocking her away._

"Da F**K lady! What the hell is wrong with you!? And you called me a pervert!"

"Hey, man you can't hit a lady like that!" the man shouted.

_He then charged at me. His fist collided with my stomach before I could do anything. I collapsed on the ground with my breath knocked out of me. I felt a strange, new feeling flow through me; I felt like some sort of power was in me, which was weird considering I don't have powers. I suddenly recovered and stood back up. I swung my arm up and my fist collided with his jaw. I must have hit him really hard or he couldn't take a punch. Either way he fell back onto the ground unconscious._

"Ow ow ow ow OW! Man that hurt! Never punch a guy in the jaw." I said shaking my hand.

"*sniff* So what are you going to do now?" The woman said, sounding afraid.

"Now…" _I popped my fingers. _"I'm getting some info." _I cracked my knuckles._ "… And you're going to tell me it."

"_Well this is strange. I ended up in a fight with a half-nude guy. And now I'm going to interrogate a less than decently clothed woman. This can certainly give people wrong ideas. Talk about awkward."_

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**Meanwhile… (Third person again.)**

"Did you hear that scream?" May asked.

"What scream? I can't hear much with all this city noise." Ash complained.

"I heard it too; it sounded like David's voice, I think it came from that direction." Bianca said pointing ahead.

"How did you guys hear it but not me? Do women have some sort of special senses or something?"

"No, we're just better at listening than you are." May answered.

"Hey I see a column of smoke!" Bianca said looking up at the sky.

"You think maybe David is there?" Ash asked.

"I don't know but let's go check it out."

_Ash, May and Bianca ran towards what was supposedly David's voice. It wasn't before long they had left the city and entered a forest._

"I think there might be a camp over there." May stated.

"Let's just check it to see if he's there." Ash suggested.

"I really hope he is okay." Bianca said.

"I'm sure he's fine."

"For the last time! You are going to give me what I want!"

"Hey, that sounds like David!" Bianca shouted.

"He must be at that camp! Come on let's go!" Ash shouted.

_They ran towards the camp as fast as they could. After walking past some dense bushes and thick plant life, they finally saw the camp. And it was a weird sight._

_David was there all right, but that is not what had the three stunned. David was standing in the camp; there was a campfire, which was probably the source of smoke, and two tents; a half nude guy was on the ground, clothes were scattered all over the place. David was standing over a woman, holding her by one of the last articles of clothing she had on, with his fist raised above his head. It looked like he was about to strike the woman._

"What the hell!?" Ash shouted.

_David let go of the woman and she dropped to the ground. Turning around, he saw Ash, May and Bianca there, staring at him. There was about a three second pause of silence. Awkward silence._

"Uhhhhh… I can explain?"

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**Somewhere else entirely…**

_Brock and Dawn were in a Pokémon Mart or Pokémart for short, searching for the correct supplies to restock their storage. Brock was searching shelves while Dawn looked through some magazines._

"Uh… hey Dawn? Could you perhaps help me find some potions?" Brock asked slowly.

"I wish I could but I've got my hands full over here."

_Brock sighed in defeat. After finding the rest of the items he headed over to the counter to checkout. As he did so, Dawn walked over to him._

"Hey Brock?"

"Yeah?"

"What sort of things does David like?"

"I'm not too sure. Why?"

"Well… I want to get him a gift."

"What for? Do you like him?" Brock said suggestively.

"What? No! No! Of course not! I just wanted to get him something to say sorry for bringing up his Riolu."

"Hmm. I don't think it's necessary. In fact you probably helped him decide to go look for him instead of waiting."

"I know but… I would feel better if I got him something."

"Well, I'm not quite sure what David likes. He mostly keeps to himself."

"Why is that?"

"I think it has something to do with his past. It doesn't seem like it was a pleasant one." Brock said after some thought.

"Oh…"

"Let's see if we can't find something. David appears to know a lot about berries. So that could be a good idea. He also cares for his Riolu a lot as well."

"Hahaha, it's easy to see that!" Dawn said joyfully. "He really likes his Riolu! It must have been his starter pokémon."

_Brock and Dawn looked around the Pokémart, trying to find something for David. After a while Dawn found two red scarfs._

"Hey maybe I should get this for him." Dawn said showing Brock the scarfs.

"Hmm."

"There're a matching pair. I was thinking David could wear one and his Riolu could wear the other, since he cares for his Riolu so much." Dawn explained.

"That's a great idea. David can give it to his Riolu when we get him back. When they both get back."

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**Well. This chapter was… interesting, wouldn't you say? Maybe awkward is a better word. Yeah… Anyway I'm back from my self-given break, and I'm actually surprised at how easy it was to type this chapter. It took me about three days. Well two days kind of blurred together seeing as I didn't get sleep that day. I know what you're thinking, 'If it only took you three days, then how come it took so much time for you to upload?' I'm lazy okay? It's a bad habit sorry. Plus Minecraft has updated and they added fireworks. Fireworks! Just think of the possibilities! I could set so many forests and villages and helpless animals and mobs on FIRE! Oh, the fun I'll have with that. As soon as I figure out how to make one… Anyway thanks for reading the chapter. Don't be afraid to give me some of your thoughts.**

**Previous chapter review replies:**

**Species Unknown: Yes Minecraft, how can anyone resist the call of being able to create (or destroy) almost anything? And yeah David's slightly crazy; his past really was the main cause for that so don't blame him.**

**Yankiwi(Guest): I'd like to see you try. My starter was Oshawott (who is now a Samurott.) Let's how you handle the type disadvantage.**


	12. Past Pain

**This would have gone up earlier, but I was reading other fanfics (I want to enjoy some stories too!) Plus, I had school January 3****rd****. Who ends a break at the end of a week?! Anyway here it is, chapter Twelve. I'm really happy, last chapter got 203 views in one day! That's the highest it has, ever gotten! Let's see if we can't beat that, hmm? Challenge Considered? I finally ended my poll. The decision has been made. Of three different choices, it was voted that David have a pairing, with a character that already exists in the Pokémon universe. This choice got an outstanding, amazing, record-breaking, never-before-seen vote total of 1. One vote. In the entire poll. That was up for over a month. But that's okay, maybe it was too soon for a poll. This is my first story; I guess it's not popular enough for things like that. I'm not popular enough for that. I plan on changing that.**

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Chapter Twelve – Past Pain

"So… this probably looks really weird." I said.

"Yeah…"

"Kind of…"

"Completely."

"Well, see, this is what happened…" I said.

_I began to explain what happened. Starting from when I left the city, all the way to when Ash, May and Bianca appeared. After I finished they looked around._

"So all of this just happened?" May asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." I said. "These Team Rocket goons are definitely weird."

"I don't get it though. Team Rocket uniforms don't look like this. So who are these people?" Ash asked, confused.

"You're right, Ash. These are Team Galactic uniforms. What I don't understand is why their logo, the yellow G, is covered by Team Rocket's R."

"Why don't we ask them?" Bianca asked.

"That is good idea." _I turned around. _"Why do you grunts have the Team Rocket- Hey, they're gone!"

"They left? Without their clothes?! That's just wrong!" May yelled.

"Hey, look. There's a piece of paper on the ground." Ash said, pointing to the ground.

_I looked down, seeing as Ash was pointing next to me, and saw the piece of paper near my foot. It was right where the female grunt was. Picking it up I began to read out loud what it said._

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**Team Rocket – Third Division**

**Ex- Team Galactic**

**Section 13, Group 4, Squad 7**

**Current Mission Orders:**

Your orders are to wait at the north exit of Jubilife City until the target arrives. Once spotted, you are to radio me. We will transport additional reinforcements to your position. Once they are there, you are to capture the target and bring him by air to our base in Eterna City. After that we will 'persuade' the target to give up the info by using the captive. Project D can begin. Move out.

**End of Orders**

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_The orders were all that was on the front side, so I turned the page over to see if there was anything else. There was something in the bottom corner on the back, but my hand was covering it. I moved my hand out of the way and mentally read what it said._

"_Here's that info you wanted, you've got quite a temper and you're quite the interrogator. Maybe you could give me a call sometime, I'm sure we'll have some fun." Next to that was a lipstick kiss mark._

"_What the hell?" I shuddered. That lady has to be one of the creepiest people I've ever met. Just plain creepy._

"Is there something else on there, David?" Ash asked.

"No, nothing." I said, pocketing the paper.

"_Aside from the note on the back, the information could be really useful. It gave a location to a Team Rocket base." I thought, as we walked back to the Pokémon Center._

"Who is this 'target' they're looking for?" May asked.

"I dunno. What about the captive they have?" Ash asked. "I don't know who it is, but we have to help him!"

"Or her." May added.

"Or it. It could also be a pokémon." I said.

"What do you mean David? Do you think it's…?" Bianca asked, a little wary.

"Yes, I think the captive they're talking about is Riolu."

"But, if Riolu is the captive… Then who's the target?" Ash questioned.

"That I don't know. But I'm certain Riolu is the captive, and we have to save him." I said, full of determination.

_I didn't tell them I had thoughts that the target was me. But, if it was me, why? Why me? What could they possibly get from capturing me? I'm not strong, or powerful. Sure, I can handle a fight, but that was against common thugs. People I grew up defending myself from. Even then I really don't knock them out with strength, I just outwit them. No. There was that Galactic goon. When fighting him, I felt that feeling. I felt stronger somehow, like something was helping me. Like some sort of weird power. But, that's ridiculous; this is pokémon, not a superhero comic book. And I'm not a superhero. But, still… what was that? Even if it's not some super power, it was something. I can't ignore it, it was there. I definitely felt it._

_Before long, we were back at the Pokémon Center. We walked through the doors to see Brock and Dawn at the front counter talking to Nurse Joy. I sat down on one of the benches while Ash, May, and Bianca got Brock and Dawn. As they walked over, I saw Brock kneel down in a declaration of love towards Nurse Joy. "Heh, typical Brock." I saw Bianca grab Brock's ear and pull him away. "What is it with grabbing the ear? I guess it's the easiest way. It's pretty painful, so they practically bend to your will. Poor Brock."_

"So, did you find Riolu or David?" I heard Dawn ask_._

"Well, we found David but not Riolu. But we did find some information about where he could be." May answered.

"That's okay; you found David and got him back, along with where Riolu could be!" Dawn said enthusiastically.

"David was the one who found the location of Riolu, after 'interrogating' some members of Team Rocket. But we do know where Riolu is." Ash said.

"We know where he COULD be. It didn't say who it was exactly, remember?" May asked.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ash said. Looking over at Dawn he added, "Hey Dawn what's with the box?"

"Oh, you see it's…"

_At that point I stopped listening. I went back to thinking about if Riolu was actually in Eterna City. Before I could put much thought into it, I was interrupted._

"So I see you're back." Brock said, as both he and Bianca came to me.

"Yeah, but I still wish I had brought Riolu back with me." I said, a little sad.

"I'm sure we'll get him back, David." Bianca said, trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah, we WILL get him back." I said. "There is no way I'll let Team Rocket keep him."

"That's the spirit." Brock said.

_At that point Ash, May and Dawn walked over and joined us. I hate being the center of attention._

"What bothers me is this…" I said. "The Team Rocket base is in Eterna City. That's considerably far from here. Plus, Oreburgh City is in an entirely different direction. So it would be out of our way to go there, and your gym battle is in Oreburgh, Ash."

"My gym battle can always wait." Ash said.

"That's a surprise." May said.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Ash said, slightly offended.

"I agree with May. The younger you would never have waited for your Gym battle." I said, trying not to sound like a jerk. "I think it's a sign of maturity."

"Huh? Really? Was I that impatient, Brock?" Ash asked.

"Well… You did get a little carried away." Brock said lightly.

"Huh. I never realized it. So when are we going to rescue Riolu?" Ash asked.

"I don't think it would be a good idea to go now." Bianca said.

"What? Why not?" I asked, confused.

"I agree with Bianca, David. This is a Team Rocket base we're talking about. It's bound to be full of guards." Brock advised.

"So I'll just battle my way through them!" I said, jumping up.

"Um, David? You don't have any other pokémon…" May said slowly.

_I fell over onto the ground._

"Gee, thanks for reminding me…" I said, defeated.

"Sorry."

"Fine, I'll find some way to prepare. So, in the mean time I guess we should head for Oreburgh. Well, since there doesn't seem to be anything else to do." I said, getting up.

"I think that sounds good." Brock said. "We can get to Ash's Gym challenge."

"Oh! I almost forgot! David, this is for you." Dawn said, handing me a box.

"Huh? For me? What for?" I asked, confused.

"It's a gift. I wanted to apologize for making you feel down by bringing up Riolu again."

"You didn't have to get me a gift. You had no way of knowing." I said, looking at the box.

"I know, but I still felt it was the right thing to do." Dawn persisted. "Don't just sit there and stare at it. Go ahead, open it!"

_I slowly took the hold of the lid, and removed it from the box. I didn't wonder long. For as I removed the lid, I saw that inside were two scarfs, both a stately looking silver color, inside their own different containers. The containers kind of looked like badge cases, but without the spots for badges and a glass cover instead. The first one looked about the size a human would wear, while the other looked smaller, like one a pokémon would wear. I knew instantly that they were for both Riolu and I to wear together as a matching set, like two great friends would._

As if confirming my thoughts, Dawn said, "They're scarfs for you and Riolu. To wear as a matching set."

_I felt tears come to my eyes, but never did they show. Not once. I had stopped crying long ago._

"Thanks, Dawn. No one has ever gotten me a gift before."

"What? Not once?" Dawn asked.

"No. Not Ever…" I said quietly.

"That's terrible." Bianca said, disbelief in her face.

"People never exactly felt like giving me something."

"_Other than physical harm." I added in my thoughts._

"Maybe they were just shy?" Ash asked.

"Oh, I wish that was the reason." I said negatively. "But… thanks for the gift." I said, in a better tone.

"No problem, David. I'm glad you like it." Dawn said in a cheery mood.

_I took the larger scarf out of the box and examined it. The more I looked at it, the more I thought that I looked more like a bandanna. Like the ones from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon. It would look great on Riolu. If only he was here to wear it._

"_You know what? I'll make sure he's here to wear it. I'm going to find a way to make it to that base and I'm going to rescue him. And this scarf/bandanna/ whatever, will be a 'welcome back, friend.' gift. But I need to make it easier to rescue him…"_

_I unfolded the 'bandanna/scarf' and wrapped it around my neck. I tied it where I felt comfortable and tucked it in slightly to reduce how much it seemed to stick out. Afterwards I took my hood off and adjusted my hoodie and zipper to make it look better. I took the case containing the smaller 'bandanna/scarf' and put it inside my bag._

"How does it look?" I asked awkwardly.

"Well it's strange to wear a scarf and a hoodie, but I think it looks okay." May said.

"It doesn't look as good as I thought it would…" Dawn said, really quietly.

_I'm guessing she was hoping no one would hear. But my great sense of hearing picked it up. If only my eyesight was as great, I hate wearing glasses._

"I think it looks wonderful. It really seems to suit you, David." Bianca said kindly with a smile.

"Thanks, you guys."

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**Later that night, in our Pokémon Center room…**

_I was lying in my bed, tossing and turning trying to get comfortable. For some reason all my thoughts kept me from going to sleep… I guess remembering past experiences stirred up more memories. But, finally I managed to get some sleep. …And it wasn't the most pleasant._

**Real world dimension, seven years ago, high school, junior level Algebra II…**

"… and that Class, is how you solve problems using the Quadratic Formula and Complex numbers. Now, since we have a few minutes before the bell rings. I'll go through the list of people who have their birthday today." Mr. Guideson stated. "Today they are… Annie Smith… Alex Handerson… and David Heathernson."

_Suddenly the bell rang in its loud, annoying way. All of the students began to gather their things and enjoy the few minutes they had before the next class period. Many of them would walk out with their friends. As for David, he walked out alone, and headed straight for his other class. Walking slowly, quietly, with his head down. Not planning on anything else, but getting to his next class to see how long he could endure that one. He didn't enjoy school, and if you asked any teenager, they would tell you the same thing. Most students couldn't wait until the school day ended and they could go home. David however, did not share the same anticipation. All he had to go home to was the orphanage. And that was what he considered the same as school, except with less learning. But, it was basically the same socially._

_As he headed for his next class, he overheard some people talking. Normally, he paid no heed to other's conversations, but this one caught his interest. They seemed to be talking about him. Five people, Alex from his previous class and three girls and another guy stood in a group._

"_What are they saying? Are they talking about my birthday?" David thought._

_He moved slightly closer, in hopes of hearing what they said. He faced the opposite direction so it didn't look like he was listening._

"Happy birthday, Alex!" said one of the girls, in an excited cheery voice.

"Yeah that's awesome." Said the second girl.

"Hey," the other guy said. "That David kid is over there. Look at him. All alone, just like every day." He said in a teasing voice before laughing slightly.

"Ew," said the third girl. "Isn't he that orphan kid? I can't believe he has his birthday on the same day as you, Alex. That, like, sucks so bad!" she said, over dramatizing the final part.

"_It's not my fault my birthday is today." David thought._

"Yeah. Wasn't his parents killed in a car accident with a drunk driver? I bet his parents were the one's drunk!" Alex accused loudly. "That's probably how is mom got pregnant with him, too!"

"Hey, Alex. He can probably hear you." Said the second girl.

"_My parents weren't drunk! They were responsible drivers! And my mom was not drunk when she got pregnant." David thought angrily._

"So what if he can? He can't do anything." Alex said.

"Ew, I can not believe someone like _him_ listing to what I say. Why does he think he gets to hear _my_ voice?" the third girl said in a stuck-up manner.

"_I can't help if I hear you. It's not like you can decide who hears you, anyway."_

"I think he is listening." Alex said. "Hey! Get out of here! Go to your class or something!" He said as he lifted his leg, and quickly pushed David in the back with his foot.

_David, not expecting the forceful push, was unprepared as he moved forward suddenly. One of the students in the hall stuck their leg out and in front of David causing him to fall and hit the lockers on the other side of the hall with his face. He slid down the lockers and fell to the ground. David stayed on the ground holding his face._

"_Oww, ugh! F**king prick! I hate this damn school! Augh! That really hurt! I hate everyone here!"_

"Oh shit! Ahahaha!" Alex laughed.

_Everyone in the hall who noticed immediately began laughing. Soon a teacher came out of the classroom near the lockers David fell into._

"What's going on here? Why are you laughing? Why is this student on the floor?" the teacher asked extremely fast.

"Um, well 'mam. That is David. He is really clumsy and he tripped into the lockers, and due to our terrible nature, we found it funny. I can't speak for everyone, but I am truly sorry." Alex said as honest as possible. _As if to add to the lie, he helped David onto his feet. Once on his feet, David knocked his hand away._

"_Your_ mother was the one who got pregnant while drunk. I bet your father raped her." David said, full of hate.

_And with that, David walked towards the bathroom, still clutching his face._

"David!" the teacher called out. "Do not speak like that to other students! Do it again and that's a detention!" The teacher added unsympathetically. "And please, learn to walk."

_If David heard, he didn't acknowledge, as he entered the bathroom. He went over to the mirror and took his, now broken, glasses off. Checking his face, he saw he had a large vertical bruise on his left temple running down his face. He turned on the sink and began to wash his face. After about thirty seconds, David took out a small contact container and put in his contacts._

"_At least that orphanage got me contacts." David thought, still angry. As he grew older, he became more appreciative of the Orphanage. He still hated it and its entire entirety. But at least they gave him a home and didn't dump him on the street. It was still a shitty home and the people treated him like shit. But it was home. David finished up in the bathroom and headed for class. As soon as he sat in his seat, the bell rang, signaling the start of class. They guy behind him, Jimmy, another outcast, spoke to him._

"Hey, I saw the commotion in the hall. You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. My face hurts though."

"Yeah, Alex didn't exactly give you the best way to hug a locker."

"I hate that prick."

"Easy, man. He wouldn't be worth it anyway."

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_David had managed to get through the rest of school without incident. Every time he saw Alex though, Alex would whisper words to his nearby associates. So low, not even David's keen hearing could understand it. That was fine though, David never cared much anyway. He pushed those thoughts away as he walked down the street, towards home known as the Orphanage. He was thinking of how best to do his homework as he walked past yet another alleyway. However as soon as he got to the alley, he was grabbed violently by something. He barely noticed a group of shadowy figures before being pushed into the wall of a building._

_All David thought was, "Oh shit, why now?"_

_He felt one guy grab his right arm and pin it to the wall, while another did the same to his left. Before David could utter a word about his situation he felt a fist collide with his back. Once, twice, the punches didn't seem to stop. David cried out in pain each time. Eventually the punches stopped, only for David to be turned around to face his attackers, which did him no good as he couldn't make out any features. The same attacker stood in front of him and quickly hit David with a sharp uppercut in the stomach. David felt his breath knocked out of him. And he felt like he just wanted to lie down for a while. But the worst hadn't come yet. He was hit repeatedly more, each one felt increasingly worse. He was hit again in the stomach and the swiftly hit across the face. David would have been put to the ground were it not for the fact he was held in place. One of the attackers holding him grabbed a nearby pipe and hit David in the shin with it. David immediately set all his weight on his other foot as he was then thrown to the ground. He felt a sharp pain in his ankle as he rolled onto his back. He saw that two people stood in front of him, one with the pipe, the other held a piece of wood. David was at this point, fearful of his life. He screamed loudly as they beat down on him with their weapons. They hit him in the arms, legs, his ribs, his sides. David felt pain all over. He tried to shield himself with his arms, but it was no better. He heard the bone in his left arm crack and felt almost unbearable pain. He tried desperately as he could to protect himself with his remaining arm, as he couldn't bear to move the other one. He felt the piece of wood hit him in the head and everything became blurry. He found it hard to keep his eyes open as he was picked up and pressed against the wall a second time. He barely made out his previous attacker holding a small, sparking, dangerous object in his hand. All David knew was he didn't want that thing anywhere near him. His thoughts were unacknowledged as the object jabbed his side. He felt electricity go through him like water and he lost all motor control. He was hit a few more times with the blunt objects before he was grabbed again and thrown into the opposite wall. As David tried to recover, he felt something sharp pierce deep into his stomach area. David couldn't feel anything more as his eyes closed, he slid down the wall, and dropped on his side, completely unconscious._

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**Yeah, a terrible place to leave off, but I wanted to put this flashback in and anything more would make the chapter longer than I like. It also seems as though this story is moving away from any romance what-so-ever. I'll have to change the genre. Don't get me wrong, there with be romance; it just seems really suppressed right now. Anyway, if you want to tell me what you think, leave a review, I always read them no matter what.**

**Review replies:**

**Species Unknown: Wow. Although I've always thought, 'Why do we need sanity? Who is society to tell us we have to be sane? Some of the greatest things came from crazy people, just look at Dr. Brown from Back to the Future. He made a Time Machine out of a car!'**

**pokefanatic231: Um, okay. Although I couldn't find any info on this 'Vance' in your profile, and your one story didn't tell me much either, I'll just take your word for it.**


	13. Oreburgh

**/Edit/01-30-13/**

**Yeah, it's been awhile huh? My mother decided my brothers and I could only use the computer on certain days. Severely limiting my time to write. Plus my brother recently had his birthday. Things have been hectic for me.**

**I haven't done this in a while(I forgot) but Special Thanks to ****Mojtaba13, White Arceus, sorarocks531, allisonch8, sorahearts210, LegendOfMetagross , and Alucard123 for adding this story to their Favorites List.**

Chapter Thirteen – Oreburgh

_David awoke after some time, still in the alley. He was lying against the wall of a building, feeling quite dizzy, cold and weak. He barely managed to sit up, but after doing so, he realized he was sitting in something wet. Looking down, he could see he was sitting in a pool of dark red liquid. He saw in his abdomen, covered by the same liquid, was a knife. David was quite puzzled._

"_Why is a knife in me? Why am I in an alley?" he thought unusually slow and confused._

_He slowly put his right hand around the handle, and gave it an experimental tug. He felt no pain, so he pulled harder. After a few tries, he gave up, unable to find the strength to remove it. Looking back at the puddle, he saw it was quite large .The liquid had extended quite far from where he was. He looked at his left arm, which was lying in the liquid and tried to move it. He couldn't. His left arm was coated in the dark liquid; he looked at his left arm as his right hand felt around the knife. Lifting his right hand up to see better, he saw they both had the same liquid covering them._

"_What is this stuff again? I can't remember… I think it was somehow important, though."_

_He sat there, continuing to think as, unknowingly, more of the liquid exited his wound._

"_Oh, wait, I remember! It's called blo-"_

_His thought broke off as he passed out do to 'dark liquid' loss._

**Sometime later, while David was unconscious.**

_A lone figure was walking towards their destination on an early morning. As they thought to themselves, they passed by an alleyway, this would have been considered the same as any other alley, if it were not for the fact the traveler stepped in a certain puddle that had spread to the sidewalk._

"Huh? What's this- Oh my god! What's with all this blood?! Oh god! Wait, is that David? Oh, he's hurt! I have to call an ambulance!" the figure shouted in a frantic and panicked manner before grabbing their cell phone from their pocket.

_After the crazed phone call to the hospital, an ambulance arrived at the alley. The paramedics were horrified at the amount of blood and David was immediately set up for blood transfusion. David had lost 1.46 liters of blood; this would be considered a Class II Hemorrhage for an 80 kg adult. David is more around 40 kg. This would be a Class III or IV Hemorrhage, which is close to fatal. David also suffered from shock, as well as a broken left arm. David was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, as the ambulance did not have enough blood packs. After a terrifying two and a half hours, David was announced stable. With that, the figure left, and David stayed in the hospital for another seven days before being released. He never found out who saved him, only that he was found by someone who called the ambulance that brought him there._

_Two weeks later, David was suspended from school for starting a fight with Alex. Whom he beat the living f**k out of._

**End of Flashback**

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**Present time, Pokémon Center, Men's sleeping room (still Third Person)**

_David woke up fast and suddenly. Looking around, he saw he was still in the Pokémon Center room. Looking out the window, he saw it was still dark._

"_Great" he thought sarcastically. "Another nightmare to wake me up in the night. The rest of tonight is going to be fun."_

_David sighed loudly._

"Hey, you're still awake?"_ David recognized Ash's voice._

"Yeah, can't sleep. Why are you awake?"

"Ah, just thinking."

"About what?"

"Stuff. You know, you never told me what love is."

"I didn't? Well I'll be honest with you, something I should do more of; I wouldn't know what it feels like."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I've never been in love."

"Well, we are only sixteen."

"I, actually, was twenty-three before I arrived here."

"Twenty-three?!" Ash said in disbelief.

"Yup, I don't get why I'm sixteen now though… Must be a bug in the machine. Can't fix it now though."

"So, you're twenty-three and you have never been in love?"

"Nope. All I could tell you is what everyone thinks love is. I mean, I have had crushes on people before, everyone does. I do have some advice though. Don't listen to Brock; he chases every single woman who is somewhat attractive. "

_Brock sneezed in his sleep._

"Yeah, I know about that. So do you like anybody right now?" Ash asked.

"What do you mean? Who is there to like?"

"Well, there's Dawn… And Bianca."

"That's two people." David stated.

"And there was that girl we met on Route 202."

"What? Her? Really? Come on man, we were there like forty minutes!"

"Your point?"

"I don't know. I'm confused right now."

"How are you confused?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I'm going back to sleep." Ash said with a yawn.

"Alright, I'll see if I can't do the same."

**Four hours later…**

"_Craaaaaaaaaaaaap." David thought as the sun came up._

_Brock, Ash, and David got dressed and headed for the cafeteria for breakfast. They didn't see any of their female companions, so they decided the girls were still getting ready. Sometime in the middle of breakfast, the girls came into the cafeteria. The girls grabbed their food and joined up with the guys. A short time later they all finished their food, headed out of the Pokémon Center and began their trip to Oreburgh City. After saying goodbye to Dawn of course._

**David's POV**

"I'm so tired right now."

"Why is that, David?" Bianca asked.

"I couldn't get any sleep last night."

"Was something bugging you?" May asked.

"It was nothing."

"It must have been something if you couldn't sleep." Brock stated.

"I don't what to talk about it."

_A moment of silence passed by._

"Soooo… Is there anything you can tell us about Oreburgh City, David? Anything about the gym?" Ash asked.

"Rocks."

"Uhh."

"It's a rock type gym. And the leader's name in Roark. The town is pretty much centered on a fossil mine."

"Well, that's neat." Ash said.

"Yeah, if you like fossils. I can't really think of anything else that would be useful. I would tell you what Pokémon he uses exactly, but that would ruin the fun, now wouldn't it?" I said with a small smile.

"Oh come on, David! Please?" Ash begged.

"Nope! Sorry." I teased. _I was enjoying this._

"I'm still having a hard time believing that you know everything that's going to happen." Bianca said, shaking her head.

"I guess I could understand what you mean. If someone told me they could tell me everything that was going to happen in my world, I would think they're crazy." I said in thought. "But, there are some things that have happened that shouldn't have. For example, the first one would be obviously me arriving here. The second would be May travelling with you in Sinnoh-"

"Wait, what?" May shouted, interrupting me.

"Yes, you see the way I saw it was you travelled to Johto to compete in the contests there, while Ash went to Sinnoh. Ash would at one point meet up with Dawn, journey together then meet up with Brock." I said, gesturing to each one individually. Except for Dawn of course, for she wasn't here.

"So you mean you're the reason I am travelling with Ash right now?" May asked in disbelief.

"Well… Yes and no. I did mention that there were contests here and I kind of teased Ash into letting you come. But, even if I wasn't here, there is the chance that you would have gone anyway."

"Hmm." May gave a thoughtful expression.

"Continuing with my earlier subject, the third would be meeting Bianca at the pier." _Bianca didn't say anything, but starred at me intently._ "And the fourth would be Riolu being captured." _I paused for a moment, reflecting on that certain friend I needed to help. _"And the last, would be us all travelling together right here."

"So that's all that's changed?" Brock asked.

"Well, so far. I might have forgotten some things." I said, trying to remember. "Hmmm. Oh, wait! Ash, you haven't caught your Sinnoh team yet!" I said, glad that I remembered.

"Huh? My Sinnoh team?" Ash asked confused.

"Correct! Remember how you started only with Pikachu in Hoenn? Well, you were going to do that here! But you still have your Hoenn team with you." I sated matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah, you're right." Ash said, glancing at the pokeballs on his belt. "Is that bad, though?"

"Well, you won't have any Sinnoh pokémon at this rate."

"Ah! Oh, no! But I can't do that. I have to complete the Pokedex." Ash said, panicking.

"Don't sweat it, just start catching them." I advised.

_At that moment a gray bird pokémon hopped in front of us, pecking at the ground._

"Oh hey, a Starly." I said nonchalantly. "Hey wait… Ash, catch it!" I shouted pointing at the bird.

"Huh, why?" Ash asked surprised by my sudden outburst.

"A Starly was one of the pokémon you are supposed to have!"

"Uh, okay. Pikachu, let's go!" Ash called out.

"Pika!" Pikachu shouted, jumping down from Ash's shoulder.

_The Starly looked at Pikachu in confusion, then flew up in the air, preparing for the battle._

"Pikachu, use IronTail!" _Pikachu's tail flashed from yellow to silver before he leaped up at Starly. The Starly was ready, and dodged to the left just in time as Pikachu swung his tail._

"Okay then, use Thunderbolt instead!" Ash commanded. _Pikachu launched its electric attack, hitting Starly before it could react. Starly was overcome by the strength of the super-effective attack and dropped to the ground. Ash grabbed an empty pokeball and tossed it at the Starly._

"Pokeball, go!" Ash shouted. _Just before the ball hit, Starly got up and knocked the ball away._

"It's still able to fight. Pikachu, use Thunderbolt again!" _Pikachu launched the attack in a repeat performance, but Starly managed to avoid the attack. It then flapped its wings, whipping up a powerful Gust attack. The attack hit Pikachu, but he managed to hold his ground._

"Quick Attack!" Ash told Pikachu. _Pikachu charged through the Gust attack at blinding speed, before jumping into the Starly. The Starly was knocked down again and Ash wasted no time in tossing another pokeball. The ball managed to make contact this time, drawing the bird pokémon inside. The ball fell to the ground and began to rock back and forth, the button on it flashing red. It rocked for another three seconds, before giving out a 'Ding' noise, signaling a successful capture. Ash picked up the pokeball before striking his signature pose._

"I just caught… A Starly!" Ash shouted. _Pikachu quickly added in._

"Pi pikachu!"

"Huh. I didn't know you still did that, Ash." Bianca said.

"Well I… uh…" Ash sputtered, embarrassed.

"That's not so important. I would be happy too if I caught a new friend." Brock said.

"Excuse me, but I happened to be following that Starly." Said an unknown voice as it stepped out from the forest.

"Oh, sorry." Ash said apologetically. "We saw Starly appear, and just caught it. We didn't know someone else was trying to catch it."

"Hmph. Maybe you should check next time."

"Hey, hold on. Sorry we caught a pokémon you were going after, but how were we to know? I'm sure you will find another Starly." I said.

"Oh, and how would you know? You don't seem to be trainer." The man accused.

"I happen to know more than you think. …Paul."

"You know who this is, David?"

"Of course I do. Paul, of Veilstone City. Quite the trainer apparently."

"So you know who I am. That saves introductions. You still don't seem to be a trainer." Paul said.

"I actually have a pokémon, so yes I'm a trainer. That's the definition right? One who trains, captures, and battles with pokémon, right?"

"So you know what a trainer is. I'm quite impressed." Paul said sarcastically.

"I could list much more info, but you don't seem to have the time for it."

"You're right. In fact you're wasting my time. If you'll excuse me, I'd rather be on my way to Oreburgh instead of chatting with a wanna-be trainer know-it-all." Paul replied coldly.

"Hey, does that mean you're going to challenge the gym?" Ash asked, completely ignoring the insult towards me. "

"That's none of your business. I'm out of here." Paul said.

_And with that he headed towards Oreburgh. Seconds later he was gone from view._

"There's something about that guy I don't like." Brock said.

"What isn't there to not like." May said hatefully. **(A/N: Yay, double negatives!)**

"He seemed… impatient." Bianca said after some thought.

"That's putting it lightly." I replied.

"What's with that guy? Is he usually like that?" Ash asked me.

"He is every time you meet him." I answered. "ALL the time, I'm not sure."

"Hey is that a cave up ahead?" May asked with her hand above her eyes.

"If it is, then it's the Oreburgh Gate. Through there, Oreburgh is just a stone's throw away." I said looking ahead.

"Well let's go, I got a Gym battle!" Ash shouted, running towards the cave with Pikachu close behind.

"Hey, Ash wait!" We called after him, trying to catch up.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx**

_We finally caught up with him after running through Oreburgh gate. He was standing outside the Oreburgh gate on the small plateau that sat at the edge of town. At the end of the plateau was a staircase cut into the rock, leading to the city._

"Wow, so this is Oreburgh City?' Ash asked, star-stuck.

"Yup, like I said: rocks." I replied as we walked to him.

"I like this town, so plain and simple, yet there's a certain beauty to it." Bianca said, glancing around.

"Hey, David where is the gym, exactly?" Ash asked.

'Well, if I remember correctly, it's that big rocky structure over there." I said, pointing at the structure.

"Uhhh, David? That's a mountain." May said.

_I sweatdropped._

"No, the smaller one next to it. See? Over there."

"Oh, I see now."

"So, why are we standing here? I can't wait any longer!" Ash said before running towards the gym.

"Huh? Oh, not again." I sighed in defeat. "And here I thought he had stopped that."

"Nope, just as impatient as always." Brock said, with an amused smile.

"Well, I'm not chasing him. Let me know how his battle goes, I'll get us some rooms at the Pokémon Center." I said, walking away with a small yawn.

"With Nurse Joy..? Hold on David I'll go with you!" Brock shouted.

"Oh no you don't!" Bianca said, grabbing Brock's ear.

"Auggghh! Why!" Brock cried.

"Excuse me, May. Could you watch this for me?" Bianca said, letting go of Brock.

"Uh, sure." May said, confused.

"I'm going with David to the Center. I need a quiet place to draw anyway." Bianca said, walking towards the Center.

_Shortly after, Bianca caught up with me, as we walked to the Pokémon Center._

"Hey, what's up?" I said calmly.

"Oh, nothing. Just decided I would go to the Pokémon Center too."

"Oh, okay then." I replied.

_A small silence passed between us._

"What all do you know about our 'dimension', exactly?" She asked.

"Well, that's kind of hard to explain." I said, slightly embarrassed. "This basically is all just something a person thought up as an idea for a kid's game."

"A game?"

"Yeah, so I guess if anyone ever asks if this is a game to you, you could say 'Yeah, it is'," I laughed, nervously."

"I don't think this is a game."

"Yeah, this is what confuses me the most though." I said.

"What?"

"I don't think this is a game anymore, either."

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**Well, how was that? Sorry this took so long, the top comments explained why, but still… I know how you might feel. No one likes waiting. In other news though. Just as a heads up, if anyone is wondering if there'll be a POV for Bianca, Dawn, May, or some other female character, the answer is no. Not yet. Why? Because I'm not sure how to write a female personality. But I can probably get past that. For the most part, this story will either be David's, Ash's or third person. Maybe Brock's… Not sure why I'd do that though. Oh, well. Sorry for any errors, I didn't proofread this as much as I should have. I'll probably come back and fix them though.**

**Don't be afraid to leave a review. See you guys next time.**

**Edit: See, told you I'd fix things. I noticed I forgot the review replies again. I don't feel like waiting until my next chapter. ****I'd like to thank all of you who review, follow the story, favorite the story, follow me, and favorite me. Every time I check my messages, I get renewed confidence and motivation. Basically I'm saying you guys make it easy for me to keep going. **Here are the replies:

** Review Replies:**

**Species Unknown: Yeah, I kind of figured you were the one who voted. No offense. You also seem to be my most loyal fan. I appreciate all my fans, you just seem to go the extra mile. Thanks for that.**

**Yankiwi: I'm glad to hear that! Its always nice to see just how much someone likes your story.**

**Kane(Chapter 10): I'm glad you like my OC so much. I was kind of afraid people wouldn't like him at all. People just don't seem to like OCs for some reason. I usually try not to make as many errors with my writing. I can relate with people who get annoyed be having to read through a ton of typos.**

**Why not do this chapter too?**

**Kane: I actually planned on that. I'm not going to say what he might create though. You will get no spoilers from me, they take the joy out of things. **

**PurpleRock: I find your review to be quite surprising(and a little scary.) But, I will not say anything on this subject publicly(no spoilers.)**

**Species Unknown: You know, I just might.**


	14. Planning

**For update news, visit my profile.**

**Enjoy the chapter you've been dying for (not literally I hope.)**

Chapter Fourteen— Planning

"What do you mean 'you don't think this is a game anymore either'?" Bianca asked.

_I let out a sigh._

"I think I turned this all to shit when I came here."

_Bianca gave me a frown of disapproval._

"What? What is with the look?" I asked, confused.

"I don't like how often and freely you swear like that." She answered, still frowning.

"Oh. Yeah, I don't do it on purpose. It just became a bad habit that stuck."

"How do you 'not do it on purpose'?" Bianca asked.

"Well, when you're treated like shit-"

_Bianca frowned again._

"Sorry. When you're treated _poorly_ like I was in high school, it isn't that difficult to start." I corrected myself and finished.

"High school? I'm not familiar with that."

"Well... You know how you go to school until you turn ten and then start your journey for your life dream? Well, my dimension doesn't do that. Where I lived in my world, every child had to attend twelve, some kids have more, years of schooling. Starting, usually, at the age of five or six. We move to different schools after a certain amount of years. The final four years are attended at 'high school'. Although most people go to college afterwards…" I explained.

"That's your entire childhood. Do you even get to enjoy being a kid?" Bianca asked in disbelief.

"Well, we aren't there every hour of every day. We got time and certain days off."

"I guess that makes things better, but still…"

"Wait… Weren't we talking about why I thought this was no longer a game?" I asked.

"I think so. It seems we got off subject."

"It happens so easily in conversations. It gets a little annoying."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Bianca said, apologetic.

"It's not your fault, it happens all the time." I said. "Anyway, I think that I might have altered things by arriving here."

"Yeah, you said this before we arrived here in Oreburgh." Bianca recalled.

"No, not that, something else. It's difficult to explain, but I feel as though I have broken the very reality of this dimension. Like bringing something from reality… has changed the very fabric of this former game. This is real. This is the exact same as my world, just with different traits and characteristics. Such as the pokémon itself." I pondered.

"You're losing me." Bianca said in defeat.

"That's alright; I don't even understand all I'm saying. I'm just making a hypothesis for closure. I need to focus on what's important right now. And that's finding Riolu."

"Shouldn't we get those rooms first? We've been standing outside the center a while now…"

"Huh?"

_I looked around, and to my right was the Pokémon Center._

"Oh. Yeah. We should… probably go do that…"

_We walked into the Pokémon City and walked to the front desk._

"Hey Nurse Joy," I greeted as we reached the front desk. "We need a couple of rooms."

"Okay, I can arrange that." Nurse Joy said. "You do know that we allow couples to share a room, right?"

"What? Oh, no, see we aren't… we're not…" I fumbled with my words in embarrassment.

"We're not a couple." Bianca stated for me.

"_It's a fact. But why did my chest ache when she said that?"_

"Oh that's too bad. I'm sorry for the mistake. Here are the keys. Have a pleasant day!" Nurse Joy called out as we left the main desk.

"I'm going to check the rooms so I can work on some ideas I've come up with. I might head to the Pokémart later though." I said as I headed up the staircase that lead to the rooms.

"I'll stay here for a while. I'm going to work on a few drawings of mine." Bianca said as I left.

**(A/N: David is not aware of any of the following actions. Except for when it's clearly stated.)**

_Bianca sat on one of the chairs in the lounge area of the lobby. Reaching into her bag, she took out a sketchbook and a pencil, and flipped to the next empty page. She looked out the window of the Center before standing up, grabbing her bag and walking outside. She found a rocky hill, where she sat down and began to sketch the landscape of the town. After a few minutes of sketching, she flipped back a few pages to one with a small fold on a corner. On the page was and unfinished drawing of a man with a pokémon standing together as the man offered a berry to the pokémon. The man's outfit was rather plain. With the tattered sleeves and plain blue jeans. The berry the man was holding was small and looked like a blue strawberry, the close description of a Rawst berry. It was difficult to tell, but if one was good at reading expressions, you could say the man and pokémon were quite friendly with each other. The look of happiness captured with excellent skill. Bianca continued the drawing for several minutes until she stopped for a break, starring up at the sky._

**Somewhere else…**

"Ash! Wait up!" May called out as Brock ran beside her, both chasing the raven-haired trainer and his yellow companion.

"I have to get to the gym!" Ash shouted back.

"That doesn't mean you have to run!"

"She just doesn't understand, does she, Pikachu?" Ash asked.

"Pika pi pikachu." Pikachu said.

"Huh? Paul? What about him?" Ash asked, confused.

_Pikachu stopped and pointed ahead. Ash stopped as well, to see what Pikachu was pointing at. Pikachu was pointing at Paul standing with a long-haired man._

"Hey, it is Paul. Paul!" Ash called out.

_Paul looked over and grunted as Ash met up with him._

"It's you again. What do you what?"

Oh, um… Do you know where the gym is?" Ash asked.

"It's right in front of you." Paul stated in an unfriendly matter.

"Oh, so if you're here… then you were going to challenge the leader!"

"Bravo, you figured it out." Paul said.

"Sorry, but the gym leader isn't here right now." The other man said.

"He's not? Where is he then?"

"He is in the Oreburgh Mines." The man explained as Brock and May arrived, out-of-breathe.

"What's wrong, Ash?" Brock asked.

"The gym leader isn't here. He's in the Oreburgh Mines." Ash explained.

"The Gym leader is a miner there?" May asked.

"Well, sort of. Roark likes to look for fossils. He uses rock types by the way." The long-haired man explained. "You could probably go there and ask for him, though."

"Hmm? Excuse me; I need to visit the Pokémon Center." Paul said politely to the man before walking away.

"Hey Paul!" Ash called out.

_Paul turned his head but kept walking._

"Good luck with your battle!"

_Paul smirked and continued walking._

"Here is a badge case, Ash. You can store all of your badges there."

"Alright, thank you sir." Ash said taking the case.

"Let's go to the mines!" Ash shouted enthusiastically as the trio headed for the Oreburgh Mines.

**Later, at the Oreburgh Mines, a certain trio was there working undercover…**

_The Team Rocket trio of Jessie, James, and Meowth were pretending to mine while chanting their motto._

"Excuse me! Do you know where the Gym leader is?" Ash asked, clearly not seeing through the Team Rocket trio's disguise.

"Uhh, um…"

_As Jessie stuttered, trying to find a way out of the conversation, two miners pushed a mine cart with a large rock inside of it. Roark then appeared shortly behind them._

"Just a moment." Roark said, as he looked at the rock.

_The placed his hand on the rock, rubbing it slowly. The huge lump of rock appeared to have some sort of face on it. Roark then allowed the cart to move again, before turning to Ash and the others._

"And who might you three be?" Roark asked in a friendly manner.

"I'm Ash and these are my friends, May and Brock." Ash greeted.

_Both Brock and May gave their respective greetings._

"You're the Gym leader, Roark, right? I'm here to challenge you to a gym battle!" Ash said.

_Roark gave a smile and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment._

"Right, sorry. I forget sometimes that as a gym leader, I need to be able to receive challenges. I was so caught up with my discovery, I forgot." Roark explained.

"Discovery?" May asked.

"We may have discovered a pokémon that was fossilized a long time ago. Let's go back to the gym and we'll sort out your gym challenge."

**Back at the Gym…**

_Roark, Ash, May, and Brock arrived back at the gym, walking inside Roark went over the old man Ash and friends had met earlier._

"I think the discovery this morning was worth it. It is truly amazing." Roark said to the man.

_At that moment Paul walked in._

"Excuse me Roark; I'm ready for my gym battle now." Paul said.

"Okay, let's go to the field then, shall we?"

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_David sat in the room he had received from Nurse Joy, working on an object in the middle of the floor._

"I just need a few more components." I said to myself while reaching into my bag.

"There, this project is complete. I wonder why I never thought of making something like this before…." I thought out loud.

_I set aside my completed project and set to work on my other creation. When looking at it, you would see a snub nose handgun. But it isn't a regular handgun; it's a handgun that shoots bursts of lasers that are supposed to knockout any organic being they come in contact with. I planned on it being used for self-defense against Team Rocket, if I needed it. I ran on special ammo I had constructed, they were the size of C-batteries, but had the charge capacity of a car battery. The lasers were shot in an aerodynamic way, instead of pushing through the particles in the air, like a bullet would, it moved through them. If I could get it to work, it would be an ingenious invention. But the problem was when it fired, the laser would either: not form correctly and break apart in the air, not fire at all, or (in the worst case) backfire in an explosion that was certain to harm the user. I found out that last part the hard way, at least it happened here at the Center where Nurse Joy could help me. I removed a small panel on the side of the weapon with my screwdriver. Setting both the screwdriver and the panel next to me, I began to rearrange the wiring, a few sparks shot out as I did so._

"If I take the green wire and connect it with that blue component…" I said once again to myself.

_More sparks and a bit of smoke resulted._

"Arggh, come on! Piece of junk!" I shouted in frustration.

_I jammed the red wire into the green terminal in a moment of rage, completely forgetting the result that was all but an inconsequential matter._

_**BOOM!**_

_I was flung backwards into the door as the weapon discharged into my chest, landing face down._

"*groan* Owwww. I'm really starting to hate that thing." I muttered, getting up.

_There was a knock on the door._

"David, are you alright in there? What was that noise?" said a muffled voice.

_I struggled to open the door, having both my motor control and breathe taken from me temporarily._

"I'm fine." I grunted in answer, opening the door to see both a worried Bianca and likewise Nurse Joy.

"You don't sound fine." Bianca retorted.

"I had a little accident with a project, to be honest." I admitted.

"What?" Bianca asked.

"What on earth was that noise? What hit the door?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Um… Me." I answered.

"You hit the door?" Nurse Joy said in a terrified voice. "What is happening in there?"

"Just a little accident with a project, I assure you." I consoled.

"How does a little accident fling you into a door?!" Bianca asked.

"Um… when the little accident is a small explosion?" I suggested.

"You're crazy."

"Only 27 percent."

"What?" Bianca asked confused.

"Nothing."

"Well you do seem okay. I'm going back to the main desk. Have a good day. And a safer one." Nurse Joy said, walking back down the hall.

_A few moments of silence passed by._

"So… I'm going to go see how the others are doing at the gym. Bye!" Bianca said rapidly, rushing out of the room.

_I stood still for a second._

"Um… okay? That was weird."

_I noticed a messenger bag near the doorway against the wall._

"Isn't that Bianca's?" I asked myself.

"I should probably give it to her…"

_I remained in the same spot for a second before looking at my project. It shot out another spark. I then looked back at the bag. I gave a loud sigh._

"Well, it's easier than this stupid project of mine."

_Reached to grab the bag when I lost motor control slightly again, knocking the bag over. I small sketch book fell out._

"A sketchbook? Right, I almost forgot that Bianca is an artist. I wonder what she has drawn." I thought out loud.

"No, it her sketchbook, I should respect her privacy."

_I put the book back in the bag before picking the bag up and walking out of the room, heading for the Oreburgh Gym._

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**If you have read my profile news, I felt like adding this chapter now out of the kindness of my heart. That and how dedicated some of you are.**

**If you haven't read it, you should. Just scroll up to the top of the page and click my name there. Yup right up there. Top of the page. Before the chapter begins.**

**Anyway, for those who have read my profile, if you have a request for what day I should post these chapters regularly, tell me in a review or PM. I would due a poll, but that didn't end well so… yeah. See you on the flip side. (Holy crap did I actually type that? I need sleep.) Alright I'm off to bed. It's 2 AM where I am so see you later.**

**Review Replies:**

**Yankiwi: I'm glad that this is **_**almost **_**your favorite fanfiction, but I sure will try to make it your number one.**

**Also, I do plan on following the game storyline as well; I just haven't got there yet. We have only scratched the surface of this story, my friend.**

**Kane: Don't worry I haven't forgotten that at all. I just need to reach the parts in the story where I can add it, such as this chapter. And yes I do seem to make that spelling error a lot.**

**Species Unknown: I might, just for you.**

**PurpleRock: Classified Information (Yeah bummer right? Sorry but the higher-ups put the stamp on that subject. I can't say anything.)**

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Well, you're a new face around here. Nice to meet you. I've read all your reviews for my chapters. I like them, nice to see you went and reviewed for every one. Thanks. I hope you continue to read and enjoy.**


	15. Paul's Challenge

**For update news, visit my profile.**

**Fun Fact: Every chapter of this story has the Word document title "****The**** Visitor From Another Land" whereas this story is actually named "****A**** Visitor From Another Land"**

Chapter Fifteen – Paul's Challenge

"_I'm glad this bag isn't girly looking, that would be embarrassing. I could have just left it at the Center, but of course my kindness wouldn't let me. And it WAS easier than that stupid weapon. I'm so lazy._

_I suppose this is a good opportunity for me to check out Paul's gym battle, although I already know what will happen. Plus that guy is a bi-. Jerk."_

"_Oh? What was that my great superior? Are we actually changing our vocabulary usage to please the beloved Bianca?"_

"_Shut. Up."_

"_Am I bothering you? Do you not like my suggestions? Are they perhaps… the truth?"_

"_I would straggle you if I could."_

_I glanced around self-consciously as I walked down the street to the gym to see if anyone was staring. No body appeared to be._

"_Of course, just me being paranoid."_

_I soon reached the gym and walked inside. A long haired old man greeted me as I walked in._

"Hello there, can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes, I have a few friends that are at a gym battle with the leader here and I was hoping to join up with them." I answered politely.

"Sure, that's fine. Just go down the hall and you'll find the battlefield." He explained.

"Thank you."

_I bowed my head slightly in farewell and walked down the hall. A couple of seconds later I saw the battlefield ahead. Adjusting the strap on my shoulder, I entered the area and walked towards the stands where Ash and the others were, including Bianca._

_I always disliked messenger bags, sure they look cool, but I don't enjoy having all the weight put on one shoulder like that._

_I adjusted the strap again, beginning to feel uncomfortable from the stress on my left shoulder. I entered the stands and headed for the group. Ash, May, and Brock were sitting close to each other at one end. Ash and May sat on the same row, Brock sat on the one behind them. Bianca sat two rows up from Brock, and closer to my end of the stands. I climbed the small staircase into the stands and approached Bianca._

"Hi, Bianca." I greeted.

'Oh! H-hi David. I thought you w-weren't coming to the battle." Bianca said in surprise, looking quite flustered.

"I wasn't until I, uh, noticed you left your bag back at the Center. So I thought… I should bring it to you." I said rather awkwardly.

"Oh, um… thank you. I didn't realize I left it there."

"No problem."

_We sat for several moments in awkward silence. I tried to think of something to say as Bianca focused on the match between Paul and Roark apparently trying to avoid looking at me, but nothing came to mind. It soon became absolutely, unbearably awkward and I still couldn't think of anything to say so I decided to see how the others were._

"_That was weird… What's with her being all flustered like that? She's never had trouble talking to me. Did I upset her? Do something wrong? Maybe she didn't want her bag."_

"Hi, guys." I said as I moved over to them.

"Hey David, I thought you said you weren't going to come to the battle?" Brock asked.

"Well, Bianca left her bag at the Pokémon Center. So I returned it."

"Oh, you did?" Brock asked, with hidden suggestiveness.

"Um, yeah. She left her bag, I returned it. Wouldn't anybody do that? So how's the battle going?"

"It just started a few minutes ago." May answered.

"Paul lost his Azumarill. Now it's his Elekid versus Roark's Geodude." Ash stated, remaining focused on the battle.

_I felt it was best to watch as well since conversation appeared out-of-place, so I turned to watch the battle unfold and let the others do the same._

**Gym challenge: Challenger Paul vs. Gym Leader Roark**

**Paul's Pokémon: 2/3**

**Roark's Pokémon: 3/3**

**Current Battlers: Elekid vs. Geodude**

"Elekid, use Brick Break!" Paul commanded.

_Elekid charged straight towards Geodude, hitting it directly with the attack. The sheer force sent Geodude flying backwards before landing on the ground._

"Geodude is unable to battle! The winner of this round is Elekid!" The referee announced.

"Wow, knocked out with one punch?" May asked in disbelief after witnessing the knockout.

"Paul has obviously raised his Elekid well." Brock remarked.

_I sat there quietly, almost with boredom as the battle continued. Letting what I'd call the scene of events unfold. I almost felt like I was watching the show as a kid again, except for the drastic changes the occurred with my arrival of course. Oh, how the smallest of things can have drastic effects._

"Go, Onix!" Roark shouted, sending forth his next pokémon.

"Elekid versus Onix… Begin!" said the referee.

"Elekid, use Brick Break again!" Paul ordered.

_Elekid charged forward once again, in an attempted repeat performance. As Elekid got close, Onix dodged with seemingly little effort. Onix then swung its tail downwards onto Elekid's head._

"Use Protect!" Paul shouted.

_Elekid used Protect at the last minute, seemingly stopping the attack. Unfortunately, Onix smashed through the barrier, knocking Elekid backwards._

"Onix, use Stealth Rock!" Roark commanded.

_Small shards of rock appeared and flew throughout the arena before planting themselves in the ground._

"What? Why would he use Stealth Rock?" Ash asked.

"Stealth Rock is a move that places rocks in the area. Whenever the opponent switches pokémon, that pokémon receives damage." Brock explained.

"It's put to good use in this situation. Elekid is weakened, if Paul switches out now, his next pokémon will take damage. Now Paul has to choose whether to keep Elekid in battle and risk being defeated or swap out and have the next pokémon hurt at the start." I commented.

_As we spoke, Onix slammed its tail into Elekid. Onix quickly jumped back however, as Elekid's Static took effect. The two pokémon clashed once more, but Elekid started to look weak._

"Elekid, return!" Paul shouted, recalling Elekid back into its pokeball and calling out his next.

"Go, Chimchar!"

_Chimchar was then released from its pokeball, suffering damage from the Stealth Rock. Chimchar landed on the ground, hurt but still standing._

"Chimchar, use Dig."

_Chimchar dug into the ground with blazing speed. A few moments later, after some dust cleared, all that was left was small hole in the field._

"Watch out Onix, Chimchar could appear at any moment, from anywhere." Roark advised.

_Chimchar then burst from the ground directly underneath Onix, inflicting damage as it did so._

"Keep using Dig." Paul commanded.

"Stop it, Onix" Roark shouted.

_Chimchar dug into the ground and burst out over and over again, inflicting damage each time. Onix tried desperately to defend itself from the attacks but due to being paralyzed, its mobility was restrained. Eventually, Onix could take no more, and collapsed to the ground defeated and unconscious._

"Onix is unable to battle! The winner of this round is Chimchar!"

**Update:**

**Paul's Pokémon: 2/3**

**Roark's Pokémon 1/3**

"I thank you Paul, it's been a great battle so far. But now, I'm afraid, it has to end. Go Cranidos!" Roark said.

"Chimchar versus Cranidos… Begin!"

"Chimchar use Dig!" Paul commanded once more.

_Chimchar dug into the ground for what seemed like the millionth time, while Cranidos looked around hoping to find it._

"Cranidos, focus. Try to sense where it is and then use Headbuttt!" Roark called out.

_Cranidos stopped looking around, closed its eyes and tried to sense Chimchar. Chimchar suddenly emerged from the ground only to be hit immediately by Cranidos's Headbutt._

"Chimchar, use Dig once more!"

"Hey guys, just a quick question. Am I the only one who has noticed that Paul has been using one move over and over?" I asked.

"No, he's been using one move, we noticed it too." Ash said calmly.

"Yeah is been Dig over and over, what about it?" May asked in the same calm tone.

"So no one finds it slightly annoying that he's been using the same move over and over again, repeatedly?"

"Um, no, not really. Why?"

"Okay," I said in dismissal. "Never mind, it's just a thing from my dimension I guess."

"Okay, then if you say so." Ash replied, still calm and normal tone.

"I hate freaking move-spam…" I muttered under my breath. "Just using the same move over and over, where is the skill in that?"

_Chimchar dug another hole into the ground, planning another attack._

_Roark gave a smirk before commanding _"Cranidos, use Zen Headbutt!"

_Cranidos hit Chimchar just as it leap out of the ground, sending it sliding across the field._

"Use Zen Headbutt again!" Roark commanded.

"Chimchar, use Dig to get away." Paul shouted.

_However, Chimchar remained still on the ground, terror shown in its face._

"Why is Chimchar not listening to Paul?" May asked, confused.

"Zen Headbutt has a side effect of sometimes making pokémon flinch. Which is why Chimchar won't move."

_Cranidos slammed into Chimchar, hitting it over and over again battering it to the near point of defeat. However, Chimchar began to glow a fiery red._

"Whoa, what's Chimchar glowing like that for?" Ash asked.

"That's Chimchar's ability, Blaze. It raises the power of fire-type attacks when its energy is low."

"So Paul has to wrap this up fast." May guessed.

"Let's hurry this up Cranidos, use Zen Headbut!"

"Chimchar use Flame Wheel!"

_Chimchar gave a loud cry before launching into its attack. Surrounding itself in fire, Chimchar rolled across the ground like a wheel before smashing into and past Cranidos, making Cranidos reel back in pain from the force of the attack. Chimchar came around a second time, again smashing into Cranidos and past it._

"Now, use Dig!" Paul ordered.

_Chimchar dove into another Dig, obliterating the harsh, rocky terrain of the old, well-used battlefield to form its circular hole._

"Zen Headbutt!" Roark yelled to Cranidos.

Chimchar leap from its exit hole only to be smacked down back on the ground, after a small dust cloud cleared, Chimchar was revealed unconscious.

"Chimchar is unable to battle… the winner is Cranidos!" The referee announced.

"Grr… I'll deal with you later." Paul said to Chimchar as he recalled it.

"Let's go Elekid." Paul added, releasing Elekid.

_Elekid was hit by Onix's Stealth Rock as it appeared but appeared to be fine._

"Cranidos use Flamethrower!" Roark shouted.

"Elekid, dodge then use Thunderpunch!" Paul ordered.

_As Cranidos's Flamethrower came close, Elekid dodge to the side before hitting Cranidos in the knee with Thunderpunch. Cranidos reeled back in pain as Static coursed through it and caused paralysis. Cranidos, however, shook off the Static with little difficulty._

"What?" Paul asked in disbelief.

"That would have worked, except Cranidos's special ability is Mold Breaker which removes any status changes." Roark explained. "Now, Cranidos."

_Right as Cranidos was about to attack, it hesitated due to its leg injury, wincing in pain._

"Thunderpunch!" Paul commanded.

_Elekid smacked Cranidos right on the head causing a great deal of damage._

"Flamethrower!" Roark commanded.

_Cranidos fired its Flamethrower, hitting Elekid square in the chest, forced back a little._

"Zen Headbutt!"

"Brick Break!"

_Both attacks collided creating an explosion, knocking both pokémon back. They stare at each other, very tired._

_After a few minutes Cranidos fell to the ground, unconscious._

"Cranidos is unable to battle! And the victory goes to the challenger, Paul!"

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_We stood at the front of the gym. Roark and Paul stood face to face, while we stood off to the side. Bianca stood at the other side of our group, clearly still avoiding me._

"Well Paul, that was a great battle, and as proof of your victory… here it is, the Coal Badge." Roark stated, showing Paul the badge.

"Thank you very much." Paul said, taking the badge from the case.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Paul. Just you wait; I'm going to get my Badge too." Ash stated with confidence.

_Paul smirked and turned to leave while Ash stood, planning his future battle._

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**Just an FYI kind of thing I already have chapter sixteen written, as I'm trying to get ahead of the story so I can post on a regular schedule. I've set it to be as follows:  
**

**Friday 4:00 to Sunday 9:00 Central Standard Time**

**Basically**** the entire weekend but yeah, anywhere between those times I'll update, depending on when I feel like it.**

**Review Replies:**

**yankiwi: I greatly appreciate your encouragement. It makes me happy to see so many people enjoying this story. I'll be honest with you. Sometimes I feel like writing this story is pointless and a waste of time, but I'm still striving to write this, don't worry. I might include that characteristic from the game.**

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: David will probably put that experiment away for now, but he will probably have a new one very soon. As far as Dawn and Bianca confusion goes, we'll learn eventually won't we? Sorry that my long confusion with my update schedule happened, but hopefully I'll update at a faster pace now.**

** Species Unknown: Hey! You can't make it official! I'm the author, only I can do that! (Fake irritation.)**


	16. David's Plan

**For update news, visit my profile.**

**Edit: Well this chapter just has all sorts of problems. I guess that's what happens when I try to post a chapter as fast as possible. I rushed to try and upload this before my internet went out, and look at what happened. Improper format, no review replies... Just terrible. Well I fixed it now so 'Yay'.**

**Yeah, I skipped a great deal of the episode. Why? Because frankly, this part of the story was taking way too long to write. I basically took the episode, and rewrote it with my own twist. It's boring to write and I imagine its boring to read as well. I really what to get past this part as the story will soon be heating up with tons of more original and interesting action. This part does have some significance as I'm trying to show that this is kind-of the Sinnoh story with an added character that suddenly and drastically changes the story. And other stuff too. I can't just tell you everything I'm going to do. That makes it less exciting. But never-the-less I really just want this part to be done with.**

_Chapter Sixteen – David's Plan_

"So what should we do now?" May asked as we left the Gym.

"I can't believe Paul gave his Azumarill away like that." Ash complained.

"Just let it go Ash. It really isn't worth it, trust me. I know the ends and outs of this whole thing." I advised.

"I still can't get over that." Brock said.

"It's not that difficult of a concept." I said, slightly bothered. "Just think of it like this, if you ever have a question about pokémon, I can give the answer. Unless its events that occur in the future as I shouldn't tell you those. That's how much I know, practically everything." **(A/N: Whoa, David sounds a little full of himself doesn't he?)**

"Guuuuuuuyyyyy'ssssss! What are we supposed to do the rest of the day?" May whined.

"Well, I haven't the slightest clue. But I know what I'm doing for the rest of the day." I answered.

"What's that?" May asked, annoyed.

"Planning on how to get Riolu back." I answered flatly.

_Leaving everyone slightly crestfallen, I walked towards the Pokémon Center. I hadn't intended to make them feel bad; I was just saying what I wanted to do._

"_How can I stand there, thinking about how to spend the day when Riolu is trapped God-knows-where in some stupid Team Rocket base?"_

_I had reached the Pokémon Center and was heading up to the guy's room._

"_This is taking too long; I need to pick up the pace." I thought. "I can't wait for Ash to get his badge. It will take at least another two days; I can't do that. Not with Riolu in danger. This form of Team Rocket seems so much darker, I fear for Riolu. If… if something happened to him… I'd never forgive myself."_

_Bitter memories of loss and pain flooded my mind._

"_No. That won't help me now."_

_Ignoring the past I suddenly had an idea._

"_That's it! I know exactly how I can free Riolu. …right under Team Rocket's noses. Heheheh."_

_I opened the door to the room and went to my bag. Pulling out a bunch of what I liked to call 'Pieces of Genius', small bits of all components of technology. Motherboards, wiring, metal, processors, anything you could think of that had to do with technology was in my bag. I set to work immediately, everything falling into place it was picture-perfect in my mind. Hours flew by like nothing._

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_Ash and Brock said their good-nights to May and Bianca and walked into the room David got for them._

_They found David sitting cross-legged on the floor hard at work on some sort of machine._

"Huh? Hey David, it's pretty late. We should get some sleep." Brock said.

"Sure, I'll do it in a minute." David answered, not looking up from his work.

"So… Are you upset at all about earlier?" Ash asked, slightly hesitant.

"About Riolu? No, not at all." He answered.

"Oh, okay." Ash said.

_David continued working as Brock and Ash prepared for bed. Several minutes later, David was still working and Ash and Brock were already in bed._

"I'll be right back." David said, getting up.

"Huh?" Ash asked, half-asleep. "We're you going?"

"Oh… Just out. I'll be gone just a minute."

"But it's 10:30." Ash argued.

"I'll get some sleep, don't worry."

_David headed out the bedroom and closed the door quietly as he could._

**(Back to David's POV. Even though I never said it changed…)**

"_There. Now to just make sure everything is quite downstairs…" I thought._

"David? *yawn* Where are you going?"

_It was Bianca. Having just emerged from the women's bathroom, she stood between me and the staircase to the lobby. I thought quickly. I had to get away from her somehow._

"I was, uh… just goin' out." I replied.

"But it's late. *yawn* Everyone has already gone to bed and Nurse Joy locked the doors." Bianca argued.

"Oh, is that so? Alright then." I said.

_She continued to stand there. She wasn't going to let me leave. I had to rethink my strategy._

"_This might be a good time to ask…" I thought._

"Bianca…" I started. "I've been meaning to ask. Why have you been avoiding me? You haven't stopped since… Since I returned your bag."

"Uhhh… Well I… I, uh. Okay, it started because of what happened when we went to get rooms for everybody." Bianca admitted.

"Hmmm…" _I put myself in thought._

"Oh, you mean when… when Nurse Joy thought we were a couple?" I asked in confusion.

"Y-yes, you see you were acting kind of different after that, so I thought you figured she meant something was actually going on."

"Different? What do you-" I broke off.

"_Wha? Oww… There's that pain again…"_

"I didn't want you to get hurt, believe me. It's just... I didn't want you to believe a lie."

"_Ugh. Well, I'm hurt. Somehow. What is this? Heartburn? I have to watch what I eat."_

_Unknowingly, my pain was apparently showing through as Bianca started to tear up._

"I'm sorry." Bianca sobbed slightly before running back into the girl's bedroom.

"_I hate heartburn… That was kind of different from normal heartburn though. More like a dull, hollow pain. I think I broke something. No, no bones. Hmmm. Huh? Where did Bianca go? Well I guess I can leave now… I still feel bad for some reason. Not because of what I'm about to do, but I think it had to do with Bianca…"_

_I snuck back into the guy's room and saw Ash, Brock and Pikachu were asleep. I grabbed my device and my bag and snuck out the window leaving a pre-written note on the nightstand._

_And then remembered what floor I was on. I gave a silent yelp, thankfully I stayed quite as I managed to grab a branch on a tree. Which wasn't visible before._

_Dropping __down from a now safe distance, I ran away from the Pokémon Center through the city._

_"Okay, so it would be faster to go through the Bike Path. But that means I'll have to sneak onto Cycling Road. It's about a day's walk… Good thing I packed a lot of energy drinks. Okay I'm going north."_

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**Yeah this chapter is a lot shorter, but this felt like a good place to stop. If it didn't stop here, it would have been forever before I could stop again.**

******Hopefully the network attack plaguing us get's fixed soon, I like my e-mail alerts. And only two reviews last chapter? I thought I had three regulars. I am disappoint.**

**Review Replies:**

**Species Unknown: I know, don't worry. I was just having fun. :P Glad to see you approve of the possibility.**

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: I'm glad you liked it, because I'm actually getting into the part I've thought about for awhile. So it should go by fairly quickly.  
****I did hate Paul because of how big a jerk he was, but then they explained it a little bit a I didn't really hate him as much.****  
****But no, sorry. I still think he's a jerk.**


	17. The Mistake

**For update news, visit my profile.**

**I decided to post this off the weekend. Why, because you guys deserve it and I think three weeks with no information is unacceptable. I'm discovered some good things from this though. I won't be able to update every week. I can only type about one thousand words in a week. In order to make the chapters longer, I'll have to take at least two or three weeks before updating. I also found out that FanFiction likes to remove my empty line spaces. (Which greatly upsets me.)  
So this is my apology and thanks for staying my faithful readers. Especially the ones that followed me from the beginning.**

**Oh! I almost forgot. I am very excited about the next chapter. Why? Because after it's posted I can reveal the name of the next immediate story I will write. If you've at least looked at the update info on my profile you know what I'm talking about. If not… LOOK AT IT! Seriously! There is no reason not to! I post everything that can be considered important on there. It's a good thing to check regularly. I can't post news in my chapters, they take too long.**

Chapter Seventeen – The Mistake

_I had reached the Cycling Road a few hours ago, and was probably about halfway to Eterna City. I had to climb a tree to get up here but I managed. It was lucky I found one with the rocky terrain at the Oreburgh exit._

_It was some hour during the night so the Path was empty. Sticking to the right side of the road, I walked north._

_I had been feeling kind of tired walking all night so I drank a few of the energy drinks I brought along. Not the crappy, sugar-filled, caffeine-loaded energy drinks mind you, but the good ones that actually give you energy without a sugar rush._

_A few hours later, the Cycling Road came to an end. I walked into the city, sticking to the shadows of the many buildings that were doubled by the darkness of the night. I couldn't let Team Rocket or Team Galactic know I was here or my rescue would end before it began._

"_Let's see… Where to begin… If I remember correctly, that building over there was controlled by Team Galactic in Pokémon Diamond." I thought, looking at a tall skyscraper in the north part of the map I had borrowed from Brock. I headed over to the hideout, strafing along the sides of the other buildings. It was a quick trip. I only had to walk down two streets. I was approaching the hideout when I noticed the small trees in front of the building._

"_Damnit! How am I supposed to get past that?! Stupid impassable, indestructible, knee-high bush. I don't have the HM Cut!"_

_Suddenly, I saw a couple of Team Rocket commanded Galactic grunts coming towards me. Without thinking I dove through the door of a nearby house. Lying on the floor with my hands over my head, I waited until I assumed they had passed. I got up and looked around. I was in a kitchen, a man and a boy sat at a table and a woman stood at a sink, washing some dishes. I thought they were going to yell at me or ask what I was doing here but the paid me no heed._

"Ummm…" I started.

_But then I noticed a silver disc on the shelf nearby. I slowly started inching my way over to it. Again, no one else moved. Standing in front of it now, I picked it up to examine it._

"_Yes! This is the HM! I'm not exactly one to steal things but I need it…"_

"I'm just going to borrow this for a minute. I promise I'll bring it back." I said.

_They still didn't move. It was like they didn't even know I was there, or they didn't care. I crept back out the door and ran over to some trees, seeing as I was still close to the edge of town._

"_I have the HM, but I still can't use it. I need another pokémon. Just GREAT!" I thought angrily, kicking the closest tree._

_A berry fell out of the tree and bounce off my head._

"Ow! What the hell?" I said.

_I broke off as I saw a Starly fly over and start picking at the berry. I reached around for my bag in excitement._

"_Yes! This is my chance!" I thought, digging around through my bag. I finally found what I was looking for. A pokeball, luckily in my bag._

"_Thank you I.D.T. glitch!" I praised in thought. "I know this is unlikely to work…"_

"… but here goes nothing!" I yelled quietly, throwing the pokeball as hard as I could.

_The pokeball hit the Starly dead-center in the back of the head, bouncing upward as the Starly fell to the ground, dazed. The pokeball came back down and hitting the small bird a second time, pulling it inside this time. I sat there dumb-founded as the ball rocked back and forth. The ball stopped rocking and gave a successful *ding*._

"Wow. I didn't think that would work." I said to myself, picking up the pokeball.

_A released the captured Starly. It stretched its wings before cocking its head at me._

"Sorry about that capture Starly but I needed your help. My friend is trapped in that building over there and I was hoping I could teach you the move Cut so we could get inside to free him. Would you help me?" I asked, hoping it understood. I didn't want to force it.

_It gave a cry before nodding its head, signaling its cooperation._

"Okay, thank you Starly."

_I placed the HM on its forehead, and a few seconds later Starly learned the move._

"Alright Starly, I just need to do something real quick." I told it, recalling it back into its ball.

_I quickly made my way back to the house I got the HM from. Entering the door in a more responsible way, I walked over to the shelf and put the HM back in its spot._

"Sorry about that." I apologized. "But I needed it to help a friend."

_No response, no gesture. Nothing._

"_Okay, that was just weird." I thought, leaving the house._

_I soon made it back to the small 'bush' of a tree that I went through all of this trouble for._

_I found a nearby fence to keep me out-of-sight while I removed the obstruction. I released Starly from its pokeball and decided to give Starly a quick check with the my Pokedex._

"_Okay, now is a good time to tell *him* to use Cut."_

"Alright Starly, use Cut on that bush over there." I said quietly.

_Starly gave a quiet cry and slashed to base of the tree silently. The bush fell over, now out of the way._

"Thanks Starly, return."

_I began to sneak towards the fence opening._

"_Stealth, I am stealth. I must be stealth. I shall remain incognito. I cannot be detected. Detection means failure. Failure means capture." I thought to keep myself motivated._

"_Now I feel stupid."_

_I reached the opening without any problems though. The city was mostly empty, aside from a few night-strollers. I surveyed the defenses the building had._

_There didn't appear to be any external guards, but the lights inside were on. So no doubt there would be trouble inside._

"_Alright. Time to try this experiment out. Come on Stealth-boy, don't fail me now." I thought attaching the small machine to my forearm. "Glad I don't need a Pip-boy…"_

_I powered up the device and set my requirements._

"_I'll probably need to use this often so let's speed up the recharge speed and duration… Hmm, that is really going to drain the battery." I grabbed a couple of spares from my bag and put them in my pocket._

_I activated the stealth system and waited as the light waves slowly started to bend around me, giving the illusion that I wasn't there. A few more seconds went by and now it was impossible to tell I was there._

"_Okay now to sneak in… If I open the door, anyone inside will find it really weird. That will make them wary. I got an idea."_

_I picked up a small rock and threw it at the glass door. It hit the glass making a loud noise as it bounced off. A minute later a couple of Team Rocket grunts walked out._

"What was that noise?" One asked.

"I don't know. Why are you asking me? Let's look around." The other replied.

_I pressed myself up against the wall near the door. As they walked by I snuck through the door just before it closed. I found myself in a simple looking lobby. In the center area was a desk with a young looking secretary sitting at it, typing at a computer. Oddly enough, she wasn't wearing a Team Rocket or Galactic uniform and she looked like something was troubling her. To my left was a waiting room, there were some benches and a table surrounded by four chairs. The walls were plain blue with a white trim along the bottom. Opposite of the table was a TV hanging on the wall. To the right of the main area was a couple of unlabeled doors. Behind the lobby desk was an elevator with a flight of stairs on either side, leading up to the balcony area above me. I decided the elevator was my best bet, but being in that small space could risk my detection if someone else was in there. I decided that if I knew which floor to go to, it might be possible. I looked back over at the unlabeled doors and saw another door marked "Authorized Personal Only"._

"_That definitely sounds like somewhere I should check out." I thought as I snuck my way over there staying close to the wall._

_I reached the door and tried to open the door. It was locked._

_I pulled the screwdriver out of my bag. Jamming it in-between the door and the wall I pulled away from the door. Soon the doorknob broke and the door was forced open silently._

"_Glad I learned this in high school. Jerks always messing with my locker. Good thing the door was worn-out from use, it must be old."_

_I crouch-walked into the room and looked around. It was a small lounge; there were some chairs and a few bookcases as well as a mini fridge. There was a tack-board on one of the walls with a paper having the word: NOTICE on it in large print. I walked over to investigate it, as the Stealth-boy wore off and began to recharge._

_I read off the information in my mind._

"_NOTICE: Due to the extensive importance of the 'precious cargo' and the 'V.I.P. target' nearing the response zone. All personnel stationed on the 22__nd__ floor must undergo regular drills to prepare for the initiation of Act One of Project D.I. Thank you and continue to make progress."_

"_Well that raises a lot of questions. Who is this 'V.I.P. target' and what is Project D.I.? Team Rocket is definitely a lot shadier than they were before I came here… How much ruin have I brought here? I need to find Riolu… The 22__nd__ floor sounds like a good idea."_

_I checked the timer on my Stealth-boy._

"_Still not recharged. It's 10:00 now, so it should be done in about ten minutes. I need a way to get up to the 22__nd__ floor."_

_I spotted an air vent on the opposite wall._

"_Well, who says clichés don't work?"_

_I removed the vent from the wall with my screwdriver. I climbed into the tight space and began crawling._

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

_Ash, Pikachu and Brock all woke up at about 9:30. Ash sitting up in his bed, stretching._

"*yawn* What a great sleep, huh Pikachu?" Ash asked.

"Pika!" Pikachu agreed.

"After all that training you both did, a good night's rest is great for your Gym match." Brock said climbing down from his top bunk.

"Yeah, you're right. Hey David, you coming to my gym battle today?" Ash asked, looking over at David's bunk.

"Huh? He's not there. Did he get up already?" Ash asked, finding David was not in the room.

"I don't think so." Brock replied, investigating David's bed. "It looks like his bed hasn't been sleep in."

"He didn't sleep in his bed? Then where is he?" Ash asked, walking towards the door.

"His bag isn't here. Maybe he's downstairs?" Brock guessed.

"I'll go see if May and Bianca have seen him. They're probably up already."

"Wait, Ash. There's a paper on the stand over here." Brock said, picking it up.

_Brock looked at the paper before turning to Ash._

"Ash, go get the girls. They'll want to see this."

**A short time period later…**

_Ash, Pikachu, Bianca, May and Brock all sat in the guy's room. Brock read the paper he found out loud._

"To my friends: By now you have probably realized I'm not there and you're wondering where I am. I figured you have found this note before looking anywhere for me, so I'll tell you. I've left the Pokémon Center and Oreburgh City. I have travelled across the Bike path to Eterna City where I believe Riolu is being held prisoner. Ash, I felt it would be necessary to tell you. You will lose your first gym battle against Roark and his Cranidos will evolve so I thought I'd give you a heads up. May, your contest will be in Floaroma Town. So get Ash to hurry up with his gym battle. Oh, and if you find Dawn, you should let her know. Bianca, I apologize for what happened last night and I'm sorry it upset you. To all of you, you all had nothing to do with me leaving. I simply felt the need to rescue Riolu and I didn't want to force you to do anything. At your time of reading this, I should have rescued Riolu and be on my way back. I will most likely arrive at 8:00 so there is no need to fret. I will see you all soon." Brock finished reading.

"It's 9:00 now. He said he would be back an hour ago." Bianca noted.

"Bianca, what did David mean by what happened last night?" May asked.

"It was nothing! We just talked that's all. I ran into him on his way out for a walk." Bianca defended herself.

"A walk? That's probably when he left." Ash realized.

_Bianca shook her head._

"No, I had just watched Nurse Joy lock the doors when I ran into David. There's no way he left out that way."

"Did you see where he went after that?" May asked.

"Uhhhh… No, I didn't." Bianca admitted.

"Guys, what matters is that David is an hour late. Something could have happened to him." Brock pointed out.

"David did this in Jubilife City, too. And that turned out okay." May argued.

"David isn't some lost pokémon guys. He can make his own decisions." Bianca said.

"Aaaagh! We're acting like he's a child!" May shouted.

"Guy's! Let's just go look for him at Eterna City. We'll all feel better." Ash coaxed.

"How will we get there anyway? It's a several days walk." May asked.

"We could use the Bike Path. I image that's how David planned on rescuing Riolu so fast." Bianca suggested.

"I thought the Bike Path was closed?" May asked.

"Maybe we could get Officer Jenny to escort us?" Brock asked.

"Well, what are we waiting here for?" Ash asked rhetorically.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"_Ugh, I don't know how they do it in the movies."_

_I had spent a good few hours trying to find the elevator shaft while crawling through the tunnels. And I soon realized that I had no idea where I was or where I was going. Eventually I found a big enough space for some breathing room and I decided to get some paper out of my bag and map out the ventilation shafts._

_I draw the path way as I crawled along, and it worked surprisingly well. I was no longer lost, but I did get a little irritated when I found the vent I climbed through to get in here. The whole time though, I kept thinking on how the map looked a lot like one in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky.  
_**(A/N: Great Game BTW.)**

_After what seemed like forever, I found my way into the elevator shaft and found that I had actually travelled up a few floors during my vent crawling. Now I probably could have noticed that while I crawled, but with the inclines and declines I went through, it was hard to keep track. _

_The elevator shaft was about what you would expect. A tall, square, dimly-lit shaft with the regular interruption of the entrance doors to the other floors with their respective number close by. _

_Luckily I found a maintenance ladder that I could reach that was next to the doors of my current floor, Level 4. I stretched my arm and grabbed onto the ladder and began climbing up. When I reached the 9th floor, I heard the elevator coming up from underneath me and I realized I couldn't stay on the ladder._

_I began to panic, wondering where I was going to go, because if I stayed on the ladder, the elevator was going to crush me or cause me to fall from the ladder. I looked around the elevator shaft for something, anything to help me._

_I felt increasing fear as the elevator was now right underneath me. I felt as though I was sweating bullets._

_I was leaning off of the ladder trying to see better in the dark area when my hand slipped off of the ladder due to my sweat._

_I fell about five feet before landing on the top of the elevator with a thud._

_I laid there, on my back, breathing a sigh of relief as the elevator continued to climb up the shaft. Eventually it stopped underneath the 22__nd__ floor and I got up to my feet. I climbed onto the maintenance ladder and began to unscrew the vent from beside the doors as the elevator went back down to whatever floor called it._

_I lost one of the screws when it can loose and I obviously wasn't going back down to get it, plus there was nowhere to put the vent so I just dropped it._

_I counted the seconds as it fell, waiting to hear it hit the elevator._

"… _five, six, seven, eight, nine…"_

_CLANG!_

"_Well that was amusing." I thought as I climbed into the vent and began my second 'dungeon' exploration. "Okay, let's see if I can't find a room to figure out what this floor is like."_

_I crawled a ways before I came to an intersection. Mapping out my path like I did before, I decided to go left. I had to turn back though, because that led outside the building. I decided this time to go straight ahead, which would be right coming from the elevator. That led to the hallway, where there was nothing I could see._

"_Alright, might as well have gone straight." I thought as I crawled back and turned right._

_I spent about another five minutes crawling before I came across a vent on the bottom of the tunnel. I peeked through it and saw that there were a bunch of cages with pokémon in them._

"_Riolu is probably in there… So how do I get down there?" I thought. "I could unscrew the vent, but if it fell it would make a lot of noise. So I need a way to keep it from falling…"_

_I opened my bag and began searching through my pieces of tech._

"_Wait, maybe these would work…" I think, pulling out two hinges. "Except I only have two screws…"_

_I decided that since there are four screws in the vent I could take two of them. I screwed the hinges into the tunnel. And then unscrewed the remaining two I needed from the top-left corner and the bottom-right corner. Taking the two screws, I screwed them into the hinges. So now when the vent was completely unscrewed, it would swing open like a door. I unscrewed the final two, while holding onto the vent. When the screws came loose I slowly lowered the 'door' and switched my Stealth-boy back on. I hung from the vent opening before dropping down._

_I couldn't believe the amount of pokémon trapped in cages. There were hundreds of them._

"I don't remember this in the game…" I said in utter disbelief.

_I walked through the aisles of pokémon cages, trying to see if I could spot any Riolu._

"_Jeez, it'll take forever to find Riolu."_

_I continued to search down several aisles, sneaking past some Team Rocket patrols with my Stealth-boy. Eventually I came across a group of Riolu trapped in separate cages. I decided to see if they couldn't help me._

_I deactivated my Stealth-boy and walked over to one of the Riolu._

"Hey, Riolu." I said quietly.

_The Riolu was startled by my voice._

"Hey, its okay. Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just looking for a friend. If you tell me if you have seen any golden Riolu, I promise I'll help you get out of here."

_The Riolu whimpered and crawled to the farthest corner away from me._

"I'm not going to hurt you; I'm just trying to help." _I pulled out an Oran berry. _"Here, you must be hungry." I said, setting the Oran berry in the cage.

_The Riolu grabbed the Oran berry, and began eating it hurriedly. It then slowly pointed to another aisle._

_I pulled out more Oran berries and set the pile in the cage._

"Here are some more Oran berries for your friends. Don't eat too fast, you'll get sick." I said.

_They Riolu gave a quite cry of gratitude before I left in the direction it pointed._

_I travelled a short distance down the aisle before I came across a cage with a golden fox in it._

"Riolu?!" I shouted under my breath.

_The Riolu in question turned around and almost cried in delight before I franticly signaled for him to stay silent. I rushed over to his cage and found it was locked with a rather expensive looking combination lock._

_Out of complete chance, I turned the lock over…_

…_and the combination was written on the back._

"_Seriously? I can't even complain because of how helpful it is."_

_I entered the combination, unlocked the combo lock, and quickly tossed it aside. Riolu burst the cage door open and we embraced in a long reunion hug._

"I'm sorry I took so long Riolu. I wanted to find you as soon as possible. I never should have let you get taken."

"Ri olu ri rio lu." Riolu cried quietly.

"Come on. We're getting out of here. But first I have to keep a promise, let's find the exit."

_We walked through the aisles again. Riolu sat half-inside my backpack so we could both be invisible. I especially made sure that feature was in my version of the Stealth-boy; I loved it in Fallout 3._

_I found a crate near a wall of cages and decided it would be a good idea to check its contents. Inside it was literally filled with empty pokeballs._

"Riolu, I think I just figured out how to keep my promise."

_I found an empty rut-sack and started filling it with pokeballs. A few minutes later I had stuffed every pokeball into the bag. I checked the time: 2:00._

"_Man, I've been gone awhile. I hope everyone isn't worrying too much."_

"Okay Riolu. We're going to convince these pokémon to let us capture them. Then we'll travel back out of the building to a safe distance and release them. We just have to get them along with it."

"Ri riolu." Riolu agreed.

_I walked to the first set of cages; there was a Machop, a Staraptor, a Luxray and a Glameow._

"Uh, hi there. I'm here to rescue you guys and get you out of this building." I started off. "Riolu, help me out here."

_Riolu began to translate what I said._

"I'm going to get you out of here, but I'll have to put you in these pokeballs." _Cries of dismay began. _"Wait, I promise once you're out of here. I'll release you back to freedom."

_Riolu's help seemed to be working. I guess him conveying my emotions started to convince them._

_Eventually they agreed and began to spread the word to the other pokémon. Once they had started the chain reaction of message spreading I began capturing pokémon._

"_This might take a while."_

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Bike Path, Oreburgh Entrance. 12:00**

"Please Officer Jenny; you have to help us get to Eterna city!" Ash pleaded. "Our friend is over there."

"I'm sorry, but unless it's an emergency, I can't give you a police escort." Officer Jenny replied.

"But our friend might be in trouble! He went into the Team Galactic building and hasn't come back." May stated.

"The Team Galactic building? There has been suspicious activity there. Alright, I'll escort you there and we'll get a search warrant for the building."

"Thank you Officer Jenny! You kindness is only surpassed by your infinite beauty!" Brock proclaimed.

_Bianca grabbed him by the ear._

"Calm down, she only offered to escort us."

"Uh, okay then. Follow me." Officer Jenny said.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**Eterna City, Galactic Building. 2:30**

_I finally managed to capture all of the pokémon with little disputes, and the Team Rocket and Galactic Grunts were going crazy. They sounded the alarm several minutes ago but with the immense amount of cages, they couldn't figure out where I was._

_I climbed up a wall of cages near my vent opening and I hopped back up to the vent and crawled in just as a group of Grunts ran by. I decided I needed to get out of this building A.S.A.P. so I would try to get out the vent that led outside. I crawled back across the intersection and made it to the vent. I could see the outside through the cracks._

"No time to unbolt this this. Riolu use Force Palm!"

_Riolu hit the vent, blasting it off the wall and several stories to the ground._

"Wow, that's a long fall. We might need some help getting down." I said, viewing the sunset. _I released the Staraptor from its ball and it flew in place next to the wall. _"Hey Staraptor, we're almost out of here, but we need your help getting down. Could you carry me to the ground? And then I promise you're home free."

_The Staraptor appeared to think for a moment before gesturing to climb on. I leaped from the vent and landed on its back._

_I wasn't used to riding flying type pokémon, and my last experience this high up the air was terrifying. So we didn't exactly have a smooth ride down. It ended with Staraptor dropping me five feet from the ground into a bush before flying off towards freedom._

_I crawled out of the bush, unknowingly leaving the bag of pokeballs behind._

"Well, at least we made it." I said to Riolu.

"On the contrary my friend, I think you just missed your escape flight." said an unknown voice.

_I looked up and saw that I was surrounded by Grunts, each with a weapon trained right on me._

"You have got to be kidding."

_I reached for the dial on my Stealth-boy._

_Suddenly a bolt of electricity was fired from one of the guns, hitting my device and shocking me. I managed to recover and pressed a button on my device. Nothing, the Stealth-boy was fried. I couldn't use it._

"How did you find my escape?" I asked.

_The one in front of me stepped forward; he was the one who spoke before._

"Ah, it is so amusing when they don't even know their own failures. You didn't think we had thermal cameras, did you?" The man asked with an evil smirk.

"_Shit, I remember the cameras. I thought they couldn't see me."_

The man continued to speak. "With how close to stuck to the walls, it was easy to follow your bright red heat trail all the way here."

"You're not getting my Riolu." I said defensively.

"It is not your Riolu we want. It is you who is our target."

"What? Why me?" I asked confused.

"You aren't from here, are you? You have technology we want."

"_They can't know about my I.D.T. Project, could they?"_

"I hate to break it to you, but you just broke it." I said, waving the broken Stealth-boy.

"We are not interested in your puny device. You traveled here from a different dimension. That is the technology we want."

"_Gah, so they do know."_

"What makes you think I'll give it to you?" I asked.

"We thought you might be uncooperative." _He snapped his fingers. The Grunts weapons switched from pointing at me to Riolu._

"But we have adequate means of persuasion."

"Wait. Okay, I submit. Just don't separate us." _I raised my arms in the air, above my head._

"I think that can be arranged." _He snapped his fingers again. The Grunts grabbed my arms and chained them together. They grabbed Riolu and clasped a collar around his neck. They took my bag and searched its contents._

"The pokeballs aren't here, sir." One of them said.

"How unfortunate. Where are they?" The leader asked me.

"I don't know what you're talking about." I replied.

"Hmm. The boss will be unhappy. No matter. Bring in the helicopter."

_A large cargo helicopter appeared and landed in our clearing. Their leader walked up the ramp, followed by the Grunts as they began to lead Riolu and I up the cargo ramp, when a voice cried out._

"Stop!"

_All of us turned around. I saw Ash, May, Bianca and Brock appear out of the tree-line. The Grunts quickly raised their weapons, pointing them at my friends. Ash and the others halted in their tracks._

"Guys! What are you doing here?" I called out, scared at the turn-of-events.

"We came to help you! Don't worry; we'll save you, David!" Ash shouted.

"No, stop! It's okay guys. You won't be able to help me."

_I turned to the leader._

"Can I at least talk to them? I'm not going anywhere, I swear." I asked desperately.

_The leader thought it over._

"Grrr, alright. You can speak to them, but you remain in sight. It'll be the last time you see them anyway!" _He turned to the Grunts. _"Men! Keep your weapons on the target. Don't fire unless he makes an attempt to run."

_They stood aside and I walked down the ramp. Riolu tried to follow, but a Grunt stopped him. The leader looked at me._

"Just another bargaining chip, in case you decide to go somewhere."

_I walked over to Ash and the others in the clearing. My hands still firmly chained behind me._

"I never should have come here." I said, completely defeated.

"We could have helped you-" Brock started.

"Not the Team Galactic building." I interrupted. "I mean 'here', your world. All I've done is ruin your dimension. I changed your world, made Team Galactic and Team Rocket more evil… I've contributed nothing. Nothing good has come from me being here. All I do is cause harm to others, intentionally or not. Back in my world, during my interview for entrance to the University. I had made a machine, but the machine malfunctioned. I caused several people harm. I would have been kicked out permanently, but a military official happened to be there. He said my creation had talent for the military. To create weapons…" _I paused. _"I was so happy. I was going to be accepted. I didn't think a whole that about the reason. I was unaware what exactly it meant. I made many things, hurt many people, and I didn't even know. When I found out, I quit. I left and built the I.D.T. and look what happened! I caused harm to my favorite game! The very people I idolized, I hurt. I did it all for my selfish wants."

"David, you didn't harm us. You've gone good things. You rescued Pikachu." Ash pointed out.

"You could have done that yourself." I muttered.

"You led us to the Sinnoh region." May added.

"Ash would have figured that out on his own. Don't you get it? I'm only damaging everything you've known! I should just let Team Rocket take me. I deserve it."

"No you don't, David. Don't let them take you." Ash pleaded. "We'll help you out of this."

"No, you won't." I responded. "They have Riolu with them. Guys, I'm sorry okay? I'm sorry for everything I've 'one. I made a stupid mistake doing this."

"We'll rescue you from them. I promise I'll find some way to prove what good you have done." Ash stated defiantly.

"You sure there is no other way?" Brock asked.

"I'm positive. Ash, I have something important to tell you. I might have done something good after all, even though I caused it." I said, voice flat. "Inside the Team Galactic building, I found an entire floor filled with stolen pokémon where Riolu was. I was rescuing them as well when those guys caught me."

"David, I don't-"

"Wait until the helicopter leaves with me and then go to the squashed bush by the building. I want you to release every pokémon you find there from the captivity of the pokeballs and make sure they return to their freedom."

_May started to walk towards me._

"_May, I-" I started._

_But Bianca stopped her._

"Allow me, May."

_I tilted my head to the side, confused._

_SLAP!_

_I almost spun around entirely from the force. My whole face stung, and even Ash and Brock were shocked. May was the only one who didn't react._

"What the hell are you thinking?!" Bianca shouted.

_I was completely stunned. Not only from Bianca slapping me, but because she swore as well. I had really f***ed up._

"Bianca I'm really, really sorry." I said.

_Before I could say more, she quickly wrapped her arms around me. Bringing her head close to my ear, she whispered low enough for the others not to here._

"If you come back for any reason, do it for me. You're the nicest person I have ever met. You've done good things, I know you have. Please, come back."

_She kissed my cheek. It was quick, soft. I'm certain the others didn't even realize it happened. I was really full shock now. I stood still, staring straight ahead as she stepped back._

_Eventually I recovered._

"Alright, I'll come back, I promise. I don't know what good it'll do, but I'll come back."

_Whether I said it to Bianca or everybody, I don't even know myself. With my final words, I turned around and slowly walked back to the helicopter and up the ramp. Riolu followed me, and the door shut behind us._

"Sir, what should we do about them?" the grunt said, refining to the group of people standing nearby.

"Leave them, they can't do anything now. Everyone load up!" the leader commanded.

_The Grunts travelled to the side of the helicopter, and climbed in, followed by the leader._

_With that, they helicopter took off leaving Ash and the others behind. I looked over at Riolu and pulled the scarf case from my pocket._

"I had meant to give this to you when I rescued you… but I guess that didn't work, huh?"

"Ri?" Riolu said, puzzled.

_I took the scarf out of the case and tied it around his neck._

"Hey, it covers up that collar too. Looks great huh? Dawn got both of us one. Remember her? The girl with the blue hair?"

"Ri riolu." Riolu responded with conflicting emotions.

_He was happy about his gift, but I could tell he was scared considering that even I didn't know what will happen._

"Don't be afraid, Riolu. We'll be fine." I comforted.

_Riolu walked over to me, climbed up on my lap and hugged me. I unzipped my hoodie, wrapped him with it, and zipped it back up. And together like that, we drifted off to sleep as I dreamt about the uncertainty while the Team Rocket helicopter carried us off to an unknown location._

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**Special thanks to Saphire Castor, CDT741, il2swin57, Skarnet, and XInsanityXAreolusXShadowwindX for following and giving a favorite. Apparently "favoriting" is not a word. Stupid MS Word, I USE WHAT I WANT.**

**Review Replies:**

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: David met up with them didn't he? Kind of a shame how it turned out. Who knows how it will turn out from here? Oh, wait, I do. I forgot.**

**PurpleRock: Dawn is off doing whatever Dawn would do if she travelled alone. I never really gave it much thought. Maybe I should.  
But you can't prove Bianca's feelings. It hasn't been confirmed! Crap. Maybe it has been… I'm terrible at this.**

**Species Unknown: AND FREED HE HAS BEEN! It didn't end very happy though, did it?**

**Il2swim57: Wow, that's a mouth full. Alright, challenge accepted. Here I go…  
I understand where you're coming from. Don't worry; you aren't upsetting me with anything. I'm actually quite glad I got a review like yours. Praise is nice, but it doesn't help with telling me how to improve. None-the-less I'm very happy with all the reviews I get.  
I sometimes have horrible foot-in-mouth syndrome too. Although I don't talk to many people. In fact this is the most talking to strangers I've done in almost six months. Anyway, yeah I felt hesitant to say this was my first story (ever) but I felt it was a more acceptable option than someone interpreting me to know what I'm doing and then insult me for my terrible writing. Although I do understand I might have lost readers because of it. I thank you for the compliment. I spent a good while reading stories on here. I thought a lot about writing my own story. I knew it would have been easy to write a story and upload it. But, once I got an idea in my head. I just couldn't get it out; I thought about it so much I finally decided to put it to text. The hardest part was waiting for someone to say something about it.  
If you ever post something, I'll be sure to review.  
I understand that I need more detail, but it's harder to do than most would think. I try harder to add more though.  
And lastly. Yes, I know what you mean. Personalities are the hardest thing I have ever written about. Trying to keep them consistent is more difficult than anything I can think about. And I know readers like you will be able to notice it very easily. Ash's personality is really difficult; because I didn't want him to be as dense as he was in the show but I also didn't what him to completely understand May's signs either. I instead decided to rewrite that chapter. David's personality: I'm not sure what you mean. I guess it's the small mistakes that he makes, but I tried to make that more out of forgetfulness. I guess it all boils down to my inexperience. But, don't worry I'm perfectly fine with your review and would be glad to have more like it. Honest opinion isn't necessarily a bad thing.**

**XInsanityXAreolusXShadowwindX : I'm not even sure what my own Wild Card is, to tell you the truth.**


	18. The Long Awaited Return

**For update news, visit my profile.**

**You guys are going to hate me. I have a lot to say before the chapter starts.**

**I'm going to sound rude and seem like a jerk, but I just what to make a comment about the reviews.**

**For those of you who have looked at my profile (and those of you who refuse) might be aware of the goals I had placed for myself. You know, something to help keep me motivated and inspire me to do better each time. One of those goals is to receive more than five reviews for a single chapter. I try really hard to type my best but I want to point out something… I'm not entirely sure how the correlation between the number of visitors and the number of views works, but SERIOUSLY! I GET WELL OVER THREE-HUNDRED VIEWS AND ABOUT A HUNDRED VISITORS THE DAY I POST A NEW CHAPTER! I'M SORRY, BUT THAT IS WELL MORE THAN ENOUGH TO GET AT LEAST SIX REVIEWS FOR ONE CHAPTER! I mean COME ON! IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT! YOU COULD REVIEW ABOUT THIS AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR PETE SAKE! JUST TYPE A REWIEW!**

**Ah, ah hah… Whoa… Sorry, I, uh, got a little worked up there. Sorry for that, really, I didn't mean to get that upset about it. Moving to something friendlier, I thought I would tell you a little about the time David has spent in the pokémon world. Tough no one told David this, when David first arrived he was unconscious for a day. Which meant he spent about five days in the Kanto region, the ferry everyone rode arrived in Sinnoh after two days. That meant that it took a week just for David to get to Sinnoh. David, Ash and the group took around four days to get to Oreburgh City and they spent two days there before David carelessly and foolishly ran to Eterna city to rescue Riolu. That entire experience took another day, meaning that we're at a time span of two weeks. And the length of time written in the chapter, and you see that David has been here awhile. The point of this whole calculation of time? To express the extensive amount of time David has been on his own, away from everyone else. So things might be affecting David that no one is aware of.**

**Since I never did this, and now feel the need to, here is a list of age (after the time period listed in the chapter of course):**

**David: 17  
Bianca: 18  
Ash: 16  
May: 15  
Brock: 21  
Dawn: 15**

Chapter Eighteen – The Long Awaited Return

**One year, eight months, two days later…**

_Ash and May sat inside Dawn's house on the edge of Twinleaf town. They specifically were sitting on the back porch steps as a cool breeze traveled through, stirring some of the late Autumn leaves though the air._

_Ash sat with his arms crossed resting on his knees, his head resting there as he stared blankly at the ground. May sat with her arm propped on her left knee and holding her head up. Both looked rather moody and not-at-all cheery as they sat in silence, entranced by their own thoughts._

_Finally, Ash broke the silence._

"Hard to believe it's been almost two years." Ash said softly, not looking up.

"Yeah." May replied. "Two years since he left."

_Both sat in silence a few moments, Ash gave a heavy sigh._

"I'll never forget how much Dawn cried when we found her in Floaroma City." May said sadly.

"She really had a thing for him. Think David ever noticed?" Ash asked.

"Probably not. I don't even know if he felt the same way, anyway."

"We never even found a trace of where they went. Just 'poof'. Nothing, not a single trace."

_Ash continued. _"We had Officer Jenny and her sisters looking, we had Professor Oak and Professor Rowan helping… I even called Gary! He doesn't even know who David is."

"There hasn't been any sign of Team Galactic or Team Rocket either. All three of them disappeared."  
May said.

_Brock appeared behind them, his expression seemed less depressed than Ash and May but he wasn't exactly happy either._

"Are you two still upset about David?" He asked.

_Both gave a grunt in response._

_Brock sighed. _"I miss him too, but we have to move on. Ash, you haven't made any progress in your journey since we left Oreburgh almost two years ago." Brock pointed out.

"Not entirely true, I caught Turtwig at least." Ash countered. "Not that it really matters. It's been so long… What if… What if David never comes back?"

"If you think that way, then what's the point?"

"Bianca? Sorry, didn't see you there."

_Bianca stood in the doorway, leaning again the frame with her arms crossed._

"David made a promise, remember? We know how he was feeling when he left, but he wouldn't go back on his promise. He'll come back, we just have to wait." Bianca said, making it seem like a dramatic part of a movie. Or something. You know like when the main character goes missing and then everybody is like "Please come back! Save the day!" And then he comes back and everybody is like "Yay!" and then he saves the world or something with his dramatic re-arrival. I'll shut up now.

_A knock on the front door echoed through the house. It actually sounded more like something slamming into it. Or someone throwing their weight against it, as if they were exhausted._

"I'll get it!" yelled Dawn from inside the house. _A sound of running was heard before the door was also heard opening._

_Dawn's shocked voice of surprise followed. _"Wha?! What? It- it can't be!"

"Wonder what's going on…" Ash said, getting up from the steps.

"David!?" Dawn shouted in clear disbelief.

_It was the group of four's turn to shout in disbelief._

"What?!"

_... followed by a rush to the door._

_And sure enough, there was a figure standing in—or I should say leaning on__—__the doorframe. He was breathing rather heavy, and was clutching his left arm just below the elbow. He wore a gray hoodie with the zipper zipped up halfway, showing a dark blue shirt underneath. He wore black cargo pants, devoid of any pockets on the legs. On his feet he wore black shoes with red parts in certain places. He wore a solid black glove on his left hand and a black fingerless glove on his right. His left jacket sleeve appeared to be firmly attached to his glove by a strip of some gray material. On that same arm, was a silver bandana, tied below the shoulder. He wore a messenger bag with the strap tightened so that the bag was pressed to his back. On his right shoulder was a golden furred, bipedal fox with reddish eyes, wearing the same color bandana around its neck, which appeared to be just as worn out as the man was._

"H-hey guys." He said weakly before both he and his companion collapsed on the floor in exhaustion.

"It is David!" Dawn shouted. _Noticing the group behind her she added… _"Come guys, let's help him out!"

_Brock and Ash grabbed David's arms and legs respectively, before carrying him to the couch while Bianca carried the golden fox over. Brock checked his forehead._ _Finally, the man opened his eyes and breathed a little easier._

"Funny, this is the second time I woke up on a couch in someone else's house." He joked, voice a little rugged from disuse.

_Dawn collapsed on his chest crying in happiness._

"You're back. You're finally back." She cried.

"Uh… Hi Dawn." He said, feeling awkward. Looking up at Ash and the others, he added "H-hey, guys."

"David, what- What happened exactly?" Ash asked.

_David sighed. And seemed to struggle to talk._

"You mean about my leaving, right? It's a long story. I'm not even sure if I remember it all. I'm sorry guys but I really don't feel like talking about it. Things happened. Thinks I'd rather forget about. Err… Dawn? Could you please get off my chest? Kind of hard to breathe… and kind of weird."

"Sorry, David."

"So… How did you know we were at Dawn's house?" Brock asked.

"Well, see. That helicopter actually took me out of the region, so when I got to Sinnoh I arrived in Canalave City. I thought you might be in Oreburgh so I began to travel there when a guy in Jubilife told me that a group of people were looking for a guy in a gray hoodie. He also said you were staying here in Twinleaf town so I came here." David explained.

"But how did you know which house was mine?" Dawn asked quickly.

"Well, the mail box was a great hint…" David said.

"Oh, right." Dawn said, embarrassed.

"Is Riolu okay?" David asked desperately.

"He seems to be sick." Bianca answered, worried. "Brock can you take a look at him?"

_Brock gave Riolu an examination, checking Riolu's forehead and other parts of the body for signs of sickness._

"He seems to be dehydrated and suffering from exhaustion. He should be fine in a few days of care though." Brock explained.

"That's great to-" _David fell unconscious._

"Huh? Hey David, are you alright? David?" Ash asked.

_Brock knelt down and checked David's forehead as well._

"He seems to be suffering the same things as Riolu with a fever as well. But to this extent… Someone has to spend a long amount of time travelling without food and water."

"Hey, David's hair is damp. Is that… salt?" May asked, perplexed.

"This is salt from salt water. That would mean David has been in the ocean, recently too." Brock realized.

"He said he came from Canalave City, that's a port town. Do you think he ran all the way here?" Bianca asked.

"I don't know but David has to have been in the ocean awhile. Look how salty his hair is." Brock answered.

"Ewww." Dawn said, looking at his hair, which appeared to have grown out quite a bit.

"What?" Ash asked. "It's just salt."

"I couldn't stand having salt in my hair." Dawn said disgustedly.

"I don't get it. It's just hair." Ash said hopelessly.

"You're a guy, Ash. Of course you don't understand." May said, matter-of-factly.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Ash asked, offended.

"Nothing, Ash. Guy's just don't care about hair as much as girls do. David's hair is a perfect example."

"Guys, can we please focus?" Dawn asked.

"Well, David is likely not going to be waking up anytime soon." Brock stated. "He probably won't be up for the rest of the day. We should let him rest."

_Bock stood up and left the room._

"Well, if Brock says so. Come on Pikachu, let's go train with Turtwig." Ash said as he left as well.

"Huh? Hey Ash, wait up! We'll train as well!" May shouted, running after Ash.

"I should check up on my pokémon as well." Dawn said before heading upstairs.

_That left Bianca in the room alone with David and Riolu. Glancing at Riolu, then at David, she thought to herself. "David… What exactly have you been through?"_

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_It is dark now; the moon rests high in the dark night sky. Inside Dawn's house, David lies on a couch asleep. It is not a restful sleep though, as David appears to be tormented by something as he shifts in his sleep. Turning on his side again, it is plain to see the pain and anguish on his face in the moonlight leaking through the window._

_A light flicks on from the staircase as Bianca comes down the stairs and into the kitchen. She walks out a moment later, a glass of water in her hand. As she passes through the living room again, she now notices the torment David is going through._

"_Is he having… a nightmare?!" Bianca thought. "It looks pretty bad. Maybe I should wake him up?"_

_Bianca stood contemplating for a few seconds, before deciding that the ends would probably satisfy the means. She walked over to him, and tried gently shaking him awake. But David appeared to be either too exhausted to wake up or his nightmare wouldn't allow him. She gave up and decided to have a sip of her water, when she got an idea. She began looking from her glass to David's face and back again._

SPLASH!

"Wahhh!" David woke up, breathing heavily.

"David, are you okay now?"

"H-huh, what? O-oh, Bianca. Yeah, I… I'm fine." David said, clearly still shook up. "Did… did you splash me with water?"

"Yeah, you looked like you were having a nightmare, so I thought I should wake you up. Sorry I had to use water."

"Oh. Well, thanks." David said, looking at the floor.

_Both David and Bianca sat side-by-side on the couch. A couple drops of water dripped from David's face. After a few moments Bianca asked…_

"Do you mind if I ask you what your nightmare was about?"

_David hesitated for a minute, thinking it over._

"It… I was remembering what happened while Team Rocket had me imprisoned." David said, still avoiding looking at Bianca.

"Do you still not want to talk about it?" Bianca asked, concerned.

"It was terrible… Bianca, believe me. If there was some way, anyway that I could have avoided going there and rescue Riolu, I would have taken it in a heartbeat. The things that they did… they're still burned into my mind. I can't forget them, no matter how hard I try! I don't think anyone will understand."

"It's okay, David. You got away from Team Rocket, you defeated them and escaped. You're going to be fine."

"No, they aren't defeated." David said with regret. "They are still out there, doing their terrible criminal deeds."

_David paused for a second. Clearly upset by remembering the ordeal._

"I just… I just… I don't want to remember, please don't make me remember. Please don't make me remember…"

_David broke into a repetitive string of mumbling. He crossed his arms and hugged himself. Bianca began to fear for the mental health of her friend, and just what sort of psychological event he went through._

_Bianca was unsure of what to do, but decided upon putting her arm around David's shoulder and trying her best to console him. Bianca couldn't tell if David was crying, or if it was the water still on his face. She decided on the latter to help David retain the affected part of his dignity. Not that she would judge a guy by crying._

_After about ten minutes, David's wearied condition robbed him of his self-awareness and he fell asleep. Bianca made sure he didn't sleep in any uncomfortable position, feeling rather awkward as she did so, and left David, hoping that his remaining sleep would be undisturbed._

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_David woke up, still groggy, to the smells of food being cooked in the kitchen. As much as he wanted to get up, fatigue due to lack of eating and drinking made it difficult. He struggled to sit up, but luckily, someone he hadn't noticed before was in the room._

"Ah, so you're awake now." May said, sitting on the seat next to Riolu's resting form.

"Huh? Oh, hi May."

"Brock told me to watch you to see when you woke up. He waited to know to help you recover." May explained.

"Help me recover?"

"Yeah, Brock is making breakfast right now." May said. "Hey, Brock! David's awake now!"

"Okay!" Brock called from the kitchen. "Could you help him to the kitchen?"

"Uhhh, sure…" May said, now hesitant. "Hey Ash, come give me a hand, will ya?"

_Ash appeared and began to help David to his feet. He brought him into the kitchen and sat him down at the table._

"Uh, so what did you want me for, Brock?" David asked.

"To help you back to good health of course." Brock answered. "When was the last time you ate something or had anything to drink?"

"Uhhh…"

"Exactly, so I've made some soup for you." Brock said, placing a bowl on the table. "For the next few days you'll only eat the food I give you."

"Wha?! *sigh* Well… at least it's good food."

_David took a sip of Brock's soup._

"Gahhh! Hot!"

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"How is Riolu?" David asked.

_Brock was kneeled down, checking Riolu's forehead. Riolu was awake, but was still too weak to move around much._

"He's recovering okay. Thanks to his young age, he'll probably recover pretty quickly." Brock replied. "Now, when is the last time HE had something to eat?"

"I… can't remember…" David said softly with regret.

"What do you mean? You have a responsibility to your pokémon! How do you not know?"

"Because neither of us has had anything worth-while to eat since we came back to Sinnoh!" David shouted. "I had nothing when I escaped from Team Rocket. When I made my way to Sinnoh, I crossed the ocean using a boat. We ran out of food. I did everything I could to provide for him! I'm sorry, okay?"

"It's alright David. I should be the one…"

_Brock cut himself off as he noticed something going on with David. David was clutching his head as though he was in some sort of pain. There was something else particular. David's hazel colored eyes… were now silver!_

_David was seemingly trying to calm himself and as quickly as the change happened, it went away. Brock blinked and guessed he just imaged it. David stopped clutching his head and was now exhausted and out-of-breath for some reason._

"David? Are you alright?" Brock asked with concern.

"I, uh… Yeah, I just… got a little upset there… Had to calm myself. Anger issues aren't good for you, you know." David said. "Say… Where is Dawn's mom anyway? I've been here two days and haven't seen her."

"She left for the Pokémart before you woke up." Brock answered.

"Oh, where are the others?" David asked, looking around the empty house.

"There out in the back. Ash is training and May and Dawn are practicing for their contests."

"Oh, I remember! Did May ever attend the contest in Floaroma?"

"Well… we were all… _affected _by your leaving, and May just didn't feel up to the contest."

"What about Dawn?"

"She was in the contest. We waited until after it was over to tell her what happened to you. It was difficult considering we had to give her bad news after her win."

"So I caused May not to participate and ruined Dawn's first contest win. Some friend I am…" David said sadly.

"Hey, don't worry about it too much, David. I see now that you were right when you said there wasn't another way. I thought about it quite a bit. So did Ash."

"Yeah, I guess so… Hey, where is Bianca at?"

"Hahaha, I knew you would ask that!" Brock laughed.

"Hey, what do you mean by that?" David shouted.

"It's just that you two seem to be pretty close friends so I figured that you would ask." Brock answered, glad for a change in subject.

_David sighed._

"So where is she?" David asked again.

"Out back with the others." Brock answered, a smirk on his face.

_David walked out the back door and looked around._

_He saw Ash with Pikachu and his other pokémon out in the field, training. May was battling Dawn on the other side of the yard in what appeared to be a mock contest battle. He glanced over to the side of the porch and saw Bianca sitting down drawing in her sketch pad._

_David walked over and sat beside her._

"Hello Bianca." David greeted.

"Oh, hi, David."

"That's an awesome drawing, it's really good." David commented.

"Thank you, I always try really hard on my art."

"You know, I used to have a friend who was an artist and he was pretty good at it too. I've always admired artists. To be able to draw and paint such amazing things… It's always something I've envied. I guess it's because I can't draw what-so-ever. I draw something and it looks terrible. I just didn't have that mind-hand coordination, you know? I guess what I'm sayings sounds weird, doesn't it?"

"Kind-of." Bianca answered. "But I understand what you're saying."

"You do? I told my friend the same thing and he looked at me funny. I don't understand what's so strange about my explanation."

"I understand that you may not be any good at drawing, but there are other things you are good at that not many other people can do."

"Thanks, so where did you get the inspiration to draw this?" David asked, pointing at Bianca's sketchbook.

"Oh, just from something that I saw a little while ago." Bianca replied. "So how is Riolu?"

"Brock says he'll be fine and that he is recovering well. Unfortunately, Brock has put both me and Riolu on an eating schedule, and you know how frequent my appetite is." David joked.

"But it's to help your recovery, right?"

"Yeah, Brock says Riolu and I should be back to normal in a few days. Riolu might actually get better before I do."

_David hesitated for a moment and opened his mouth to say something, but he closed it again._

"What is it?" Bianca asked, wondering what her friend was about to say.

"I was going to say something, but I don't think I really should…"

"It's fine, you can tell me what it is."

"Well…" _David sighed. _"You remember the time right before I got into Team Galactic's helicopter?"

"Yes." _Bianca blushed slightly at the memory, but David didn't appear to be aware of it._

"How I was all depressed and saying that I was just an unsolved problem? You helped me out of that. As I was saying good-bye, I had practically given up. I was ready to let Team Galactic take me away and never see the light of day again. But you helped me remember a reason not to quit. Your words gave me reason."

"David…" Bianca said quietly.

_David was looking up at the sky._

"Your words reminded me that there are people who would miss me if I was gone. Ash, Brock, May, Dawn, Riolu… and you. All of you would want me back. If I hadn't known that, I don't think I would have tried to escape as much as I did. What I'm really trying to say is…"

_David was now looking at Bianca._

"…Thank you."

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**Special thanks to Gawain74, ****AkiTsuki-chan, Shadow fang the black wolf, and Addie Card for following and/or "favoring" A Visitor From Another Land. (Still don't like that word.)**

**Review Replies:**

**UEG nastykiller: Yeah, the English language can be weird at times. I'm still trying to understand how hyphens work.**

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Unfortunately, the actual story of David's escape won't be told until later.**

**Guest: You mean the Point Of View? I think it adds interesting perspectives to the story. For when you think "I wonder what he thinks about that event…" or "How did he react?" or even "What's his mind-set?"**

**matthew(sorry but for whatever reason, it kept removing your name.): I could make a twist for the romance, but I think it's already a twist in itself.**


	19. A Rematch

**For update news, visit my profile.**

**Okay, yeah, last Author's note was kind of… I can't think of a word for it. But the point is, I blew my top, so to speak. I really shouldn't have gotten angry like that and trust me, I really don't think I needed to complain as I did. Reviews aren't that big of a deal anyway, I think it was just my desire for people to let me know how I was doing, added with separate hatred. Personal problem. Really though, I have calmed down about it. And after some thinking and reflecting over things reviews aren't that important. I said it myself last chapter, I get around three-hundred views for each chapter. That's three-hundred people who have enough interest to take a look at my story and at least read some of it. Almost every chapter brings in more followers, so that counts for a big part of it too. I really just need to get a hold of myself and get my emotions in check.**

Chapter Nineteen – A Rematch  
**  
**_It's been a few days since David returned. He met Dawn's Mother, and received an official welcome. After a few days, Riolu awakened and began a steady recovery. He was able to move around a little and David couldn't be happier to see him awake. The both of them were put on Brock's schedule, and David's only complaint anyone would let him get away with was how he was eating less frequently than usual. But, Brock was unwavering and believed this was the best way back to health._

"Is anyone else feeling a little anxious to start traveling? I enjoy rest as much as the next guy but seriously, I feel bored." David complained.

"David, you're still recovering. We can't go travelling from town to town with you like this." Brock scolded, handing David and Riolu there scheduled meals.

"That's my point though; there is nothing for me to do." David said, beginning to eat his meal, glad he no longer had to eat soup.

"Hey! You've been talking to me a lot during your recovery. Are you calling me boring?" Bianca accused, sitting across from David at the table.

"W-what? N-no! Of course not! It's just that… I mean… I just wish… *sigh* I'm going to shut up and eat my food now." David said, defeated.

"*giggle* Don't worry, David. I'm just joking with you." Bianca reassured.

_David paused for a moment, for his mouth was full. After swallowing…_

"I don't mean to make you think that way, I just wish there was something more… active? ...to do instead of sitting around."

"Well, if this is anything, I believe that Riolu is healthy enough to battle and train again." Brock offered.

"But wasn't the last time Riolu battled when he went against Ash and Pikachu before you arrived in Sinnoh?" Bianca asked.

"How do you know that?" David asked, a little surprised.

"I heard it from Ash when we were waiting for you to come back." Bianca explained. "He said that even though it seemed like your first battle, you did really well."

"Well, it technically wasn't my first battle. Remember, I came from a dimension were this is a game, so I have been in several battles. But, it was a lot more different battling in a new perspective like that." David clarified. "It kind of felt like it really was my first battle."

"You know…" David continued. "Now that I think about it, another battle with Ash sounds pretty good right now. What do you think Riolu?"

_Riolu, who had been eating his meal happily, looked up from his food dish and nodded determinedly, eager for soothing exciting to do._

"Well, now we just have to see if Ash is up to it." Brock stated.

"But isn't David still eating?" Bianca asked.

"Nope, I'm already done."

"Huh? But… but you just got your plate a couple of minutes ago…" Bianca said, completely dumbfounded.

"Come on! I feel ready for this battle!" David shouted determinedly.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So Ash, what do you say?" David asked.

_Ash, who was standing out in the backyard, had been training with Turtwig and his other pokémon. He thought for a moment, rubbing his chin._

"Mmmmm… Okay! Only if you're really sure. You were really worried about Riolu after we battled that one time. Do you REALLY want to battle?"

"Oh, don't worry. Riolu and I have talked; we're both prepared for this battle."

"Okay then."

_Ash and David walked separate ways, putting a good amount of open space between them. They turned and faced each other, staring each other down the field._

"Hey Brock, care to be ref for this match?" Ash called out.

"Sure thing, Ash."

"If you don't mind, Ash." David started. "I would like this to be a rematch between Pikachu and Riolu."

"Okay I guess." Ash answered. "You up for it, buddy?"

"Pika!" Pikachu answered.

"Okay Riolu, we're all ready for this, aren't we?" David asked as Riolu walked onto the field.

"Ri!"

"Well, don't you sound determined. Let's not end up back in recuperation, okay?"

"Alright, begin!" Brock shouted.

"Riolu, Force Palm!" David shouted.

_Riolu ran forward with incredible speed, charging across the field in mere seconds. Ash, completely astonished by Riolu's surprising speed was unable to react quickly enough before Riolu landed a strong hit on Pikachu._

* * *

"Wh-what amazing speed… I never knew David's Riolu was so fast." Bianca said, also shocked.

"Riolu wasn't this fast the last time Ash battle against David." May commented.

_Bianca, May and Dawn, the previous two of which having heard about the match, were sitting on the porch. The match taking place an optable distance away._

"Then Riolu had to have had some training before David came back." Dawn guessed, eyes full of wonder.

* * *

_Ash finally managed to get over his surprise and ordered a counterattack._

"Pikachu, quick, use Thunderbolt!"

_Pikachu charge its attack, before releasing its Thunderbolt at Riolu. Just before the attack hit, Riolu nimbly dodged to the side._

"Riolu, Copycat!"

"Pikachu, dodge it!"

_Riolu charged up, releasing a perfect copy of Pikachu's Thunderbolt attack. Pikachu leap to the side, easily dodging his own attack._

"Okay, that won't work." David said quietly. "Let's see if Pikachu still knows Iron Tail… Riolu! Get close and use Force Palm again!"

_Riolu ran across the field again, getting right in front of Pikachu, before thrusting his arm out in attack.  
Pikachu barely managed to leap back, dodging the attack._

"_His Riolu is so fast!" Ash thought. "I gotta do something about that speed. Maybe I can paralyze Riolu with an electric attack…"_

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt again!"

_Riolu dodged to the side with lightning speed._

"Nice try Ash, but I know what you're doing! Riolu, use Return!"

_Riolu was, once again, in front of Pikachu, this time scoring a direct hit with Return. Pikachu slid a short distance away, but appeared to be okay. However, the faintest yellow spark could be seen coming from Riolu._

"_Oh no, you have got to be kidding…" David thought._

"Riolu, quick, use Force Palm!"

"Pikachu use Quick Attack!"

_Pikachu ran forward at extreme speed and collided with Riolu's palm. Both pokémon were sent backwards but remained on their feet._

"_I have to find an advantage before paralysis starts to effect." David thought desperately._

"Riolu, get behind Pikachu and use Return!"

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack to get away!"

_Riolu quickly ran behind Pikachu and dashed towards the Mouse Pokémon. Pikachu quickly ran forward, desperately trying to get away, but was unable to move fast enough before Riolu's attack hit._

"_Not only is Riolu fast, but it does some serious attack damage." Ash thought, gritting his teeth. "And then there's the high power of Return from David and Riolu's friendship, it's like the perfect attack for them. Pikachu's not going to be able to handle much more."_

"Riolu, back away to over here!" David yelled.

* * *

"What's David doing that for? Couldn't he hit Pikachu with another attack?" Dawn asked, confused by David's actions.

"Didn't you see it? The faint sparks coming off Riolu? All of the physical contact from Riolu's attacks is starting to cause paralysis, and David must not want Riolu near Pikachu when it affects." Bianca explained.

"Wow Bianca, how did you notice that? I can barely see the sparks." May asked.

"When you're an artist like me, you notice faint details like that." Bianca explained.

"Wow, I never would have seen that!" Dawn stated, amazed.

"Maybe cause you're too busy staring at David." May teased.

"Hey! You're one to talk. You're always staring at Ash!" Dawn countered.

"Yeah, but that's different!" May shouted back.

"How is it different?"

"Because me and Ash already got together! Duh!"

"Yeah and that took forever! It only happened like a week and a half ago!"

"Can we please go back to watching the match?" Bianca asked.

* * *

"Pikachu, Thunder!"

"Riolu, Endure!"

_Pikachu unleashed a massive amount of electricity directly at Riolu. The Emanation Pokémon tried to raise its arms to brace its self, but was stopped in a frantic dance of sparks jumping across its body.  
The blast hit Riolu knocking him into the air before landing on his back. Riolu slowly got up, staring ahead at Pikachu._

"Riolu, are you okay?" After a quick nod David added, "Alright use Aura Sphere!"

"Pikachu, use Volt Tackle!"

_Riolu created a small bumpy blue sphere in his hands, it slowly but steadily grew in size, but remained bumpy and irregular. Finally, Riolu deemed it large enough and fired off.  
Sadly, the sphere appeared to be unstable and exploded pre-maturely halfway between the two combatants._

_Surprised, Pikachu stopped his attack and tilted his head, perplexed._

_Both Riolu and David hung their heads._

"So it still doesn't work, huh." David said, upset.

"Pikachu, use Volt Tackle again!" Ash called out.

"Riolu, let's go with our Retaliation Strike!"

"Their what?"

_Pikachu sprinted across the field, shrouded in yellow electricity. Riolu went to raise his arms up, but he seemed to have extreme difficulty in doing so.  
There was a bright flash of yellow light and all visibility was lost as everyone shielded their eyes.  
The light faded and all that was revealed was Riolu, scratched up, panting and exhausted, standing on his respective side of the field and Pikachu lying unconscious in the middle._

"Pikachu is unable to battle! Riolu is the winner!" Brock announced, managing to get over the shock everyone was sharing.

"I won?" David said in disbelief. "I actually won! Alright Riolu! High Five!"

_Bianca, May and Dawn made their way over as David and Riolu slapped hands, or hand and paw._

"You won, David!" May shouted, congratulating him.

"Yeah, but it was a good battle. Right Ash?" David asked as Ash came over.

"Yeah, it was great!"

"I might have beaten you, but you're probably still better than me. After all, it was just a one-on-one." David pointed out.

"Aw, give yourself some credit David! You did well!" Dawn said with much enthusiasm.

"Riolu appears to be fine, but what happened in that light?" Brock asked, making sure Riolu didn't need any more bed-rest.

"I'm pretty sure the light came from Pikachu." David said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, but do you know what happened in the light? How did Riolu win? We couldn't see anything." May asked, slightly annoyed.

"Um, Riolu… blocked Pikachu's attack and counter attacked." It sounded more like a question than an answer.

"Gah! Quit stating the obvious and answer me!" May shouted, now fully angered.

"Ah, I'm sorry! "I'll I did was tell Riolu to use our Retaliation Strike combo, that's it!" David shouted, cringing in fear. He knew all too well what May was like when she was upset and denied something so easily achieved, well to her anyway.

"What IS your Retaliation Strike combo, David? Maybe telling us that would help." Bianca said, trying to help David away from a certain painful experience.

"I… I can't tell you." David responded, still cringing from May.

"Why can't you?" Ash asked trying to hold back May, who was now absolutely livid at David recent response. And David thought he had anger issues.

"Because I would lose a battle advantage." David answered.

"Seriously?!" Dawn asked. "That's it?!"

"Hey, I understand what he's getting at!" Ash defended. Both him and Brock now trying to hold back the trio of upset females. "We don't know what IT is! That's good for getting the upper-hand in a battle! Knowing something you opponent doesn't!"

"Alright, fine." May said, the trio calming down. "But can, you please tell us? It's not like anyone else will know."

"Al-alright." David stuttered. He was used to seeing May so upset, but seeing Bianca angry like that put a fear in him worse than when he left that faithful day almost two years ago. "I-It's really si-simple actually. R-riolu used Endure t-to withstand the attack and t-then countered w-with Force Palm."

"Hmmm, it is simple, but sounds really effective." Brock mused.

"Y-yeah, that's what I thought w-when Riolu and I c-came up with it."

"Wow! Got any more?" Ash asked, getting exstatic.

"Y-yeah. S-several. But I don't want to give those away."

"Well, you don't have to."

"Okay, but I have a question for Brock."

"Alright, what is it?" Brock asked.

"When's the next time I can eat?"

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Ahhhh!" David said, finishing his meal.

"You know, Ash may have a large appetite but yours is really frequent." Brock said, taking the plate from David.

"I had a fast metabolism in my teenage years and since I somehow de-aged, it came along with me." David explained. "So now I get hungry pretty easily."

"Right, I forgot that you were older in your other dimension." Brock said, remembering the first time David said who he really was.

"Yeah, I was older than you Brock-o. Luckily, I stayed the same age mentally. I'm still not sure what negative effects could appear because of it." David said, scratching his chin in thought. "Oh, well. Still excellent food Brock, I don't know how you do it. I'm going to go out and train with Riolu."

_David walked out of the kitchen and through the back door. Riolu was sitting with Bianca, who appeared to be talking to the Emanation Pokémon about something. When David walked over Bianca stopped talking and instead greeted David._

"Hey Bianca. Hope you don't mind, but I was going to see if Riolu and I couldn't work on his Aura Sphere."

"No, I don't mind. Can I watch you though? I could use some inspiration for my art."

"Sure, I don't see why not."

_The three of them walked into the yard and over by the treeline. Bianca sat by a tree out of the sun to watch the duo train._

"Okay, Riolu. The important part is to try and focus as much of the Aura you can into a condensed sphere. Try it now." David said, rubbing his left elbow, cringing while he did so.  
Bianca found that rather strange.

_Riolu pulled his arms back, beginning to construct his Aura Sphere between his paws. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on what David said._

"The sphere is still a little irregular. Try to condense it more. Pretend that you're trying to squeeze a berry." Turning to Bianca, David said, "The problems Riolu has been having is that he has trouble with concentrating his Aura into the sphere, so when he releases it, the sphere falls apart and explodes. Another problem is that, it takes too long to form it, leaving him vulnerable to any opponent he's facing."

"Isn't the first problem because he's a Riolu and they can't control Aura as well as their evolved form, Lucario?"

"Normally, you would be correct, but Riolu is special in that he has better control over Aura than most. Or, at least, he used to."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember when I said that Riolu had a problem with meeting people he didn't know? When he was little, a human injured him, and the event left Riolu scarred. Unfortunately, the traumatic injury was on Riolu's head and I believe it damaged Riolu's control over Aura."

"That's terrible!" Bianca exclaimed, gasping. "I can't image how a person could do such a thing."

"Well, this was when the both of us were in my dimension." David pointed out. "But it's still sad. Before his injury, I'm sure that Riolu was even able to sense the presence of others just as well as any Lucario. But now… this." He said gesturing to Riolu, who was focusing too much to hear their conversation.

"I wasn't aware of the extent of Riolu's injury at the time. So I don't even know the person who did it. Even still, doing that to such a young being… If I ever got my hands on the person who did it." David swore.

_His eyes flashed silver for a split-second. Bianca looked at him quizzically._

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing. I thought I saw something."

"Where?" _He turned around._

_A cry from Riolu distracted him from his search as he saw that Riolu had a perfect sphere._

"Alright Riolu!" David shouted. "Now let's see if it holds till it hits the target. Aim for that tree over there!"

_Riolu gave a cry and a nod before releasing his Aura Sphere. It flew straight and true. …until it was seconds from hitting, it veered right and collided with the ground._

"Huh. That's weird. Aura Sphere usually never misses its intended target. Well, at least it held together! Right Riolu?"

"Ri!"

"So we just need to figure out how to hit the target and get you to form the sphere faster. Let's start with speed first since you got the hand of concentration."

_David glanced back at Bianca. She had her sketchbook out and appeared to be drawing something._

"_Guess she found her inspiration." David thought._

"Alright, I think we'll need a partner for this one." David said, grabbing a pokeball off his belt. "Come on out! Staravia!"

_The Starling pokémon emerged in a flash of light, giving a cry and spreading its wings._

"Huh? I thought you had one Pokémon, David?" Bianca asked, looking up from her sketchbook.

"I caught this one on my way to free Riolu. Staravia actually helped me in the rescue."

_Staravia gave a triumphant cry._

"Alright, Riolu. Staravia is going to stand over there at the back of the field, which from here is about the length of a pokémon field. I want you to try and form your Aura Sphere and shoot it at that same tree before Staravia flies past you, okay?"

"Olu." _Riolu waved his paw out, signaling his okay.  
Staravia flew over to the designated spot, preparing to take flight._

"Ready, go!"

_Riolu began forming his Aura Sphere just as Staravia began flying down the field. Riolu was doing well, having formed the sphere relatively quickly and was making sure it wouldn't dissipate mid-shot. That appeared to be a bit of a problem as every time Riolu smoothed it out it would become irregular again._

_Staravia flew by, and Riolu didn't fire his Aura Sphere._

"Hey, don't worry about it Riolu." David said, petting the dis-hearted pokémon on the head. "This is what training is for. So let's try it again."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

_It had been a few hours; the sun was setting just behind the trees. Bianca had stopped sketching and was watching the sunset._

"Well." David said, sitting against a tree next to Bianca. "I think he's finally getting it."

_David pulled out a bottle of water from his hoodie pocket and offered it to Bianca. After she denied it, David unscrewed the cap and took a drink._

"He's still a little slow at it, and we can't seem to get it to hit the target, which is strange for an attack that never misses, but we've made a lot more progress than we have in a while."

"Well, that's good. He does look a little worn out, maybe he should take a break?" Bianca suggested.

"Yeah, wouldn't want to over-do-it." David agreed. "Hey, Riolu! That's okay for now, you can stop. Here, have some water."

_Riolu came over and sat down in front of David. Taking the water bottle, he drank in large gulps._

"So did you find you inspiration?" David asked, pointing at Bianca's sketchbook.

"I did. Here, look." Bianca replied, offering the book to David.

_David took the sketchbook and looked at Bianca's sketch.  
It was an uncolored drawing of Riolu forming his Aura Sphere. Riolu was standing with his hind-legs apart, eyes closed and a look of focus and determination on his face. Bianca even sketched the irregular sphere and the odd twirling of air because of it. David thought it was a wonderful sketch._

"This is amazing! I like how you drew Riolu in the middle of forming his Aura Sphere. Isn't it great Riolu?" He said, showing the sketch to Riolu. _Riolu shouted in agreement._

"Thanks, you two." Bianca replied, gleaming from the praise. "Hey David? I was hoping you could do me a favor."

"Yeah, sure. What is it?"

"Well… I was wondering if you would go with me to Lake Verity."

"Uh, alright, but what for?"

"Well, the whole time we've been here. I never went there, and I was hoping to paint the lake."

"Oh, okay. No problem." David answered, sounding slightly disappointed for some reason.

"Brock said we could start travelling again in a few days, because you and Riolu will have recovered enough. So Brock is going to be busy preparing and Ash is training harder than ever, and both Dawn and May said they would be discussing contest techniques. "

"Sure, we can go some time tomorrow and then a few days later we'll all start travelling again. You'll have plenty of time."

"I was kind of hoping to do it in the morning, but I know you're not that much of a morning person."

"No, it's fine. We can go in the morning, anything for you. I won't have a problem with it." David assured.

"Okay then. Tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning." David repeated.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
I'm am sorry to say that this will be the last chapter for a short period of time due to the fact that I will be traveling out-of-town for a few days. So I'll probably start typing the next chapter later, when I get back, and the next update will take longer. If anyone wishes to know, I'll update my profile on the day I leave and I'll update it when I get back. Just so some people feel more at ease, knowing when I start typing this story again. And with that, I'll see you all upon my return.**

**Review replies:  
****Antex-The Legendary Zoroark****: The reason will be revealed all in due time. I apologize about the outburst; I should focus on entertaining the readers. That is after all, the purpose of this site, right? (Unintended rhyme.)**

**PurpleRock****: See what I mean? I think Nintendo should have come up with a different name. How many other characters have the same name?  
If you have the movie, it might help, maybe. I'm not a doctor, though. If you don't have it, well… the Internet is always free, am I right?  
As usual, your guesses are dangerously close. It shall be revealed in a few chapters.**

**I have a dictionary****: His escape will be written in this story but I have a spin-off idea for his Separation from everyone else.  
Yeah, I know. I don't think I was popular to begin with, (I'm still probably not) and it's not something I desire being. The last thing I want to be is some Stuck-up, authority-sweating, full-of-himself, snobby prick that is a little too high up on the ladder for his own good, and has everyone kissing his feet like he's some self-righteous god. (I have problems with celebrities.)  
You're right, all the followers and favorites people have given me probably say more than any review could.  
I'll try my best and I wish stress was something I could get rid of more easily.**

**Species Unknown****: David could maybe, possibly be 'something'. But if he is 'anything' it is DEFINITLY NOT a Pokemorph. That idea has already been taken by a writer whose work I respect very much.**

**Sorarocks531****: I kind of had an inspiration for my 'improved' imagery. In my English III class, we read "Of Mice and Men" and "The Great Gatsby", both of which are very good at putting a picture in your head. Those stories inspired me to pay more attention to detail when describing things. I just hope it lasts.  
I feel as though I'm getting better with grammar and spell checking. I'm noticing more in my proofreading, and double-checking the dialogue to make sure the characters are speaking in the certain way or tone that I want them to.  
Don't worry about the reviews so much anymore; your continued support is a much more appreciated act.**


	20. Hunter J

**For update news, visit my profile.  
**

**I'm going to immaturely say that I have the best number of reviews right now.  
Special thanks for the follows and favorites on both me and this story from: Okamisu and TRAVELERAYGA.**

Chapter Twenty – Hunter J

_Bianca walked down the stairs into the living room to find David, sitting on the couch, dressed for an outing, and stifling a yawn.  
After hearing Bianca let out her own yawn, David turned and greeted her._

"Wow, I know you said you would be ready, but this is still a surprise. I didn't think you would be awake so easily."

"Well," _David yawned again. _"I technically never went to sleep."

"You stayed up _all _night? Why?"

"Couldn't sleep. So, I thought about some things, and I worked on other things."

_David rubbed his left elbow._

"I'm honestly not that tired."

"You know you're going to eventually pass out during the middle of the day."

"I can stay awake."

"If you say so. I suppose we can leave for Lake Verity now?"

"Yeah." _Another yawn._ "I'll grab your paint board-thing for you."

_David picked up the "paint board-thing" from beside the door where Bianca had placed it yesterday and the two of them began to make their way towards Lake Verity._

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**(Lake Verity, Lakeshore; 5:40 A.M.)**

"So what you're painting on is called the canvas, the stand holding it up is called the masking frame, and that circular board is just called a palette?"

"That's right. I'm painting with acrylic paint, so I don't really need this sort of palette but I like to use it."

"Isn't that one the easiest to use?" David inquired.

"For most people."

_David went back to eating is breakfast sandwich, watching the sunrise as Bianca painted. Bianca was definitely a very skilled artist, being able to paint the sunrise with such speed.  
After some time, when the sun could be considered risen, Bianca said she was finished with her painting._

"Man, I'm starting to feel bad about complimenting your art. I don't want you to think I'm insincere. Too many compliments can do that to a person. …although I wouldn't know."

"It's okay compliments are still nice."

_There was a pause of silence._

"Do you want some breakfast? You haven't eaten anything and it's almost…" _He checked the time on his custom Pokedex._ "… nine-thirty. Trust me; I make a _pretty good_ sandwich." David coaxed.

_Bianca laughed. _"Okay David."

_After eating their sandwiches, which Bianca admitted were really good, they sat by their small 'camp' they had set up.  
David let out a yawn._

"See? I told you this would happen."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

_Before Bianca could reply, she interrupted herself with a yawn._

"Aha! The tables have turned!" David gloated. "How much sleep did you get? Hmm?"

"I only yawned because you yawned." Bianca retorted.

"Nope, that's a myth. You're tired." David said determinedly.

"How so?"

"You yawned because my yawn reminded you of how tired you are. It's not actually contagious. So, how much sleep did you get?"

"Okay, I admit it. I didn't fall asleep either."

"I knew it." David said, in a yawn.

_He leaned back against the tree, faintly aware of how close Bianca was sitting next to him, not really thinking much about it. Exhaustion clearly visible as he tried to stay awake, but sadly, he failed as the last thing he remembered was Bianca letting out another yawn._

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

**(Lake Verity, Lakeshore; 1:37 A.M.)**

_The sun was high in the sky now. At the pinnacle of its climb, its bright, warm rays did all they could to spread their warmth in the days of steadily decreasing temperature as Winter replaced Autumn on the throne of Seasons.  
David wasn't quite sure when exactly he could be declared 'awake', but he did, he found himself in a perplexing situation. For a shy, unsocial, lonely, shut-in like him, it could either be his greatest dream or dreadfully, embarrassing nightmare.  
Apparently, Bianca was right when she said he wouldn't stay awake, but as some sort of twisted irony, Bianca had fallen asleep as well. …right on David's shoulder._

_Normally, when not in the particular situation of subject, one would think that the event shouldn't cause much of a reaction. Some might not even stray from their normal response if they were faced with the same situation. But alas, this was David. A rightful member of the more intellectually inclined, he was also burdened with being more declined to acquiring the desired result in this particular field. As such, he definitely seemed to be fighting a sort of mental war with himself, whether it was to convince him of something or make a decision, one cannot be sure._

_He could try to ease his way out from underneath her, but as cliché as it was; she was leaning on him enough so that she would probably fall over if he moved. He could try to move her off of him into a more stable sitting position, but the movement could wake Bianca and produce an even more embarrassing situation and David was not entirely comfortable with holding a woman by the shoulders in such a way, or touching a woman at all._

_He knew he needed to come to a decision, but it wasn't easy with the overwhelming fact that __a person of the opposite gender was resting against him.__ His third, and possibly final, choice of action would be to either return to or pretend to be asleep until Bianca woke up and pray that the situation would be resolved then. A notable problem with this plan is that there is no telling when Bianca would wake considering he hadn't went to sleep last night he wasn't sure if Bianca had done the same. She stated that she didn't get any sleep but that could mean she either didn't sleep at all or simply had trouble sleeping.  
David ran through many different reasons in his mind, none of which helping him._

"David? What happened? Did I fall asleep?"

_David could have died._

"Uh, y-yeah." _David was drowning in his nervousness._

"Oh, against this tree?"

"…Yeah."

"Well that explains why my back hurts."

"M-mine too."

"Oh, so you also fell asleep?" Bianca asked.

_David swallowed._ "…Uh-huh."

"See? I said you would."

"Bianca?"

"Yes David?"

"…Y-you're- You're on my shoulder…"

"…Oh. I fell asleep on your shoulder didn't I?"

_David was red in the face. _"…Yes."

"…You were also leaning against me, weren't you?"

_David was trying his hardest to hide his face, examining the grass intently. _"P-probably." He answered quietly.

"Hey. Don't worry about so much. It's fine."

"…We should probably go back… The others will wonder where we are."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Hey, guys! Where've you been?" Ash asked as Bianca and David walked through the door.  
_Both him and Brock were sitting in the living room._

_David seemed unlike he was going to speak anytime soon so Bianca answered._

"We were at Lake Verity. David led me there so I could paint."

"But you were gone for so long. It must have been quite a painting," Brock commented.

"Yes, I hope it is," Bianca replied.

_David kept walking and went over to where Riolu was eating._

"Well, I guess it's a good thing you painted it now. 'Cause we plan to leave tomorrow for Eterna City!"

_At the mention of the town David made a sudden inhale and dropped to his knees._

"Ah! David, are you okay?" Brock asked. "Do you still feel sickness?"

"N-no. I'm fine."

"Maybe we should wait. Give you some more time to recover."

"No!" David shouted quickly. "It's fine. We don't have to wait for me."

"Well. Okay, if you say so."

_For whatever reason, Brock still looked doubtful._

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"So Dawn was certain she didn't want to travel with us?" Ash asked.

_The group of five, Ash, May, Brock, Bianca and David, were currently on the edge of Floaroma City. It had been a couple of days on the road. David had been particularly insistent on not going through Eterna City, and had gotten more and more silent as they neared it.  
"But David, we have go to Eterna for my next gym badge," Ash had insisted. _

_It still didn't make David feel any better._

"Dawn said that she was more used to traveling on her own, and that a group of six would be too many people," Brock answered Ash's previous question.

"Not that five people is that much of a difference," May pointed out dryly.

"Dawn _was_ pretty determined to get you to go with her, wasn't she David?"

_David didn't reply._

"I'd say she definitely likes you!" May exclaimed.

"How do you know that?" Ash asked.

"Because she told me during one of our girl talks, and trust me, nothing stays hidden during girl talk. _Nothing._"  
_Ash gulped at the seriousness of May's final word.  
_"Besides, my intuition also says so." May added.

_David still hadn't said anything. He hadn't even given as much as a facial expression._

"Wow, look at all the flowers!" May shouted.

"Yeah and in the bright sunlight, they look like they're on fire!" Ash added, clenching his fist.

"Yeah, they're nice." David said.

"Gee, you don't sound enthusiastic." Said May.

"Yeah, you almost seem like Paul!" Ash said jokingly.

"Don't even think of comparing me to him!" David shouted coldly. "I am nothing like him- Gah!"  
_David grabbed his forehead in pain. After a second, he continued walking into town, still clutching his head._

_A shadow past overhead, causing everyone to stop._

"What was that?" Ash asked.

"Hey, a Salamence." Brock answered.

_Ash scanned it with his Pokedex._

"Someone's ridin' it!"

_David became visually alert at that._

"Wow, someday these little flowers will bloom like crazy," A lavender-haired girl stated. **(A/N: Her name is never mentioned or used in dialogue but it's Melodi. It will be used when referring to her from now on.)**  
_Melodi was standing next to her flower bed with her Gardevoir, watering the flowers._

_Suddenly the Salamence landed and its rider jumped off._

"Target identified." Was all the dull silver-haired female said.

"Wha? Who are you?"

"Ariados! String Shot!"

_The long leg pokémon complied with the order, binding Melodi to a nearby tree._

"She needs help!" Brock shouted.

"Come on!" Ash added.

"No, no, no! This isn't good!" David yelled, now clutching his head with both arms. "How could I have forgotten about this? I should have been prepared! Arceus, why do you work against me?"

"What are you taking about, David?"

"I'll take Gardevoir!" The woman declared, pointing her wrist-mounted device at the pokémon.

"Gardevoir! Go!" Melodi shouted.

_In a flash of light, the Embrace pokémon disappeared._

"Using Teleport, eh?"

_The woman tapped her glasses, activating the glasses' heat scanners. Gardevoir's heat signature appeared a short distance away._

"You should be grateful, Gardevoir. You beauty with be preserved for eternity." The woman said, raising her device at Gardevoir just as it reappeared."

_Her device fired, and Gardevoir was frozen as a solid statue._

"Gardevoir, no!" Melodi cried.

"Mission accomplished. Transporting target, now."

"Roger," said a voice from what appeared to be a communication device.

_A large six-wheel truck suddenly came flying over the hill, and a large, circular, mechanical platform was shot out. The platform flew under Gardevoir and it became surrounded in a glass case. The platform, with Gardevoir, flew back into the truck. The truck continued by and was gone. The woman and her Ariados, both on the back of Salamence, then followed as Ash and Brock reach Melodi, who was still trapped._

"Are you okay?" Ash asked.

"I'm alright, but please help me get Gardevoir back!" Melodi pleaded.

"You can count on it!" Ash stated as he ran after the truck and the silver-haired woman.

"Come back!" Ash yelled out at the truck.

_The truck continued down the road, which sloped down the hill in a winding U-shaped way. Ash quickly started running down the hill, before he lost his balance and tumbled the rest of the way down, now in front of the truck._

"Well, what are you planning now?" David asked.

_Ash jumped, surprised to find David next to him. In his determination he hadn't noticed David had followed him._

"Truck's kind of getting close…" David persisted, trying to get Ash to do something.

"Quick, Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

_The attack hit directly, but truck didn't stop or even slow down._

"That didn't work. Riolu, use Force Palm on the ground!" David commanded.

_Riolu did so, throwing up rocks in front of the truck. The truck drove by but it swerved to a stop._

"An impressive Thunderbolt." The woman said, hovering on her Salamence.

"Hey, you can't just steal pokémon!" Ash shouted, as the woman's Salamence landed.

"That's quite a Pikachu you got there. It'll fetch a good price."

"Whataya talkin' about? Give back Gardevoir!"

"No can do." _The woman grabbed one of her pokeballs. _"Hey, I know you." She added, looking specifically at David.

"Wha? David? Do you know her?"

"You know, Escapee. You've caused quite a bit of trouble for some of my clients. I should drag you back where you belong."

_She tossed her pokéball._

"Go." _The flash of light revealed a large purple scorpion._

"What's that?" Ash asked, taking out his pokédex and scanning the pokémon.

"Drapion."

"I wish I could play prisoner round-up, but I'd love to see Pikachu's other moves, so bring it on!"

"Alright!" Ash shouted. "Volt Tackle!"

_Pikachu charged forward, picking up speed as he was enveloped in electricity._

"Dodge it."

The Drapion leapt upwards, dodging the attack. Pikachu slid to a stop in front of Salamence.

"Marvelous! No doubt you're worth quite a lot." _The woman pointed her device towards Pikachu._

"Now Riolu!"

_Faster than you could blink, a small sized stone flew towards the woman's device. Hitting it hard, it forced the device to point away just as it fired._

"Now you can't fire anymore beams. You might as well retreat." David said.

_The woman laughed._

"Do you really think I wouldn't have learned from last time?"

_Before anyone could react, the woman fired another beam, this time hitting Pikachu._

"Pikachu!" Ash yelled.

"Pikachu's fine. I protect my investments."

"That's a laugh." David said sarcastically.

_The woman frowned._

"Ariados."

_The Long Leg pokémon fired a String Shot, pinning Riolu, David and Ash to the boulder behind them._

"It's a shame I can't capture that Riolu; I know better. Transport now," The woman ordered.

"Roger."

_Another disk flew out, taking Pikachu back into the truck._

"Pikachu! You can't do that! Pikachu!" Ash yelled as the truck and the woman fled the area.

* * *

_A certain trio stood a fair distance away, at the bottom of the cliff._

"When it comes to slippery fingers, she rules." James stated.

"Unlike the looks department, where I rule." Jessie said gloatingly.

"That dame had tha nerve to nab Pikachu and I'm not gonna take it! Let's take her down a notch."

"And once we're through working our magic, she'll beg to work for us!"

"Mm-hm." James and Meowth agreed, nodding.

* * *

"Well. She might have remembered that she can't take Riolu, but she still forgot one thing." David said smartly as May, Brock, Bianca and Melodi appeared.

"Ash!" May asked.

"What happened?" Brock asked.

"She got Gardevoir, and Pikachu!" Ash answered.

"Hold on, we'll get you out of there."

"No need," David halted.

_With a grunt, David forced his left arm through the web. The web tore at his arm, ripping his sleeve as he broke through. Ash was shocked still as David began ripping the web of them._

"David! How did you do that?!" Ash, now free, asked.

"Why does your arm look strange?" May asked.

"I'll have to explain later. Right now, we still have to get Pikachu and Gardevoir, don't we?"

* * *

_The truck was driving across the road when a weird white smoke appeared around the turn, cutting down all visibility. The truck stopped and the men inside got out._

"Where'd this smoke come from?" said one of them.

"Aha, where there's smoke, there's fire!"

_Three silhouettes appeared in the smoke._

"Listen, is that a voice I hear?"

"It's speaking to me loud and clear."

"On the wind!"

"Past the stars!"

"In your ear!"

_The smoke cleared._

"Spreading chaos at a breakneck pace."

"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place."

"A rose by any other name's just as sweet."

"When everything's worse our work is complete."

"Jessie!"

"And James."

"Meowth, now that's a name!"

"Putting the do-gooders in their place."

"We're Team Rocket."

"And we're in your face!"

"Wobeffet!"

"Mime mime, mime."

"Seviper!"

"T'anks for babysittin' Pikachu for us while we were out but we'll take over!" Meowth declared.

_A large beam exploded in front of Team Rocket, sending them sliding backward._

"Yipes, she's back!" Meowth yelled, as the Salamence landed with the woman.

"What? A Meowth that can speak like a person? I'm certain I can sell that."

"Well, ya know, it's lonely at the top." Meowth admitted. "Did you say sell me?!" he added in shock.

"Quick Seviper, let's go!" Jessie ordered.

"You too, Carnivine!" said James.

"Ariados!"

_For the third time, Ariados fired a String Shot, tieing Jessie, James and Seviper to a round boulder. Which rolled over on top of them._

"Meowth, get in there right now! Defend my honor!" Jessie yelled.

"I'm afraid Meowth's going to be tied up."

_Another fired beam, another frozen statue._

"Ahh!" James gasped.

"Meowth no!" Jessie cried.

"Meowth yes!" the woman countered.

_The truck and the woman left, taking Meowth with them._

"How selfish!" James complained.

"Come back!" Ash cried.

"Gardevoir!" Melodi cried.

"Twerps on the run." Jessie commented.

_The group ran past Team Rocket._

"Hold on!" Jessie cried.

"Must you be selfish too?" James shouted.

_David stopped at the trio-minus-one._

"You guys again." David muttered. "You know I still remember our last meeting, and I can still feel the scars. So where's the pathetic fur ball?"

"How rude!" James stated.

"Meowth's with that woman, twerp." Jessie answered.

"Oh, how sad!" David shouted in mock grief. "Guess you should have kept a better watch over him. Hag." David added as he walked away. "Oh, and this is for Riolu." _He pushed the boulder with his foot, causing to roll downhill._

"Hag? Why you little twerp! If I wasn't stuck here!" Jessie shouted in outrage as she rolled away.

_David joined the rest of the group as the ground started to vibrate and the roar of turbines was heard._

"Ah crap." David muttered.

_A large airship came into view._

"Is that her ship?" Ash asked, shielding himself with his arm from the harsh wind.

_The airship rose even higher before flying away, slowly blending into the sky._

"They're gone." May said.

_Suddenly an Arcanine and female police officer on a motorcycle with a sidecar pulled up._

"She got away!" said the officer.

"Officer Jenny!" Ash said.

"So you were following her too?" Brock asked.

"Yes, when I heard she was here I came as soon as I could. But too late. She didn't get any of your pokémon?"

"She got my Pikachu!" Ash told her.

"And my Gardevoir." Melodi added.

"Hold on, who is she?" Brock asked.

"Her name is J and she's got a fearsome reputation as a pokémon hunter." Officer Jenny answered, holding up a wanted poster.

"Pokémon hunter?" Ash repeated.

"What's a Pokémon hunter?" May asked.

"Terrible scum." David answered. "They capture and steal pokémon just to sell them to anyone paying high enough. The only people worse than those pathetic excuses for human beings are the wealthy bigots who hire them."

"So you know what they are, young man." Officer Jenny confirmed.

"So they do all that for money?" May asked.

"Yes, they can be hired ahead of time to capture a certain pokémon, or if they find a pokémon of exceptional value, they'll catch it anyway." Officer Jenny answered.

"And Hunter J has her own special method for stealing pokémon as well." David added. "Ruthless." _He shook his head._

"That's horrible!" Brock declared.

"She's the worse!" May added.

"Grr!" Ash growled.

"Ash, are you okay?" May asked putting a hand on his arm.

"I can't stand it! And I won't take it!" Ash announced. "She won't steal another pokémon, and I'm gonna get my Pikachu back or else!" "David, you and Hunter J seemed to know each other, why is that?"

"You know her?" Officer Jenny also asked.

"We more than know each other. I had the displeasure of being in her airship under her watch."

"So you worked for her?" Officer Jenny accused, slapping a handcuff on David's wrist. "Then you're coming to headquarters with me!"

"What? No, I never said that!" David protested as he was dragged into the sidecar. "You can't do this! I have rights! I never worked for her!"

"What? Wait you can't do that! David's not a criminal!" Brock shouted.

"Maybe so. But we still have some questions to ask him. If nothing turns up, we'll release him."

"Do you know where J is headed?" Brock asked.

"Not so far. J's identity is a mystery. All we know is that after she steals pokémon, she makes her escape in that huge machine you saw before."

"With all respect Officer Jenny, I asked David," Brock replied.

"I don't know where she goes. Most likely it's towards her next target," David answered looking down at the ground.

"We can't chase after her, but if only we could predict the next place she'll show up," Brock suggested.

"Excuse me. Maybe this pokémon could give us a hand," Melodi stated releasing a Kirlia from her pokeball.

"Of course, Kirlia's power might be just the thing we need," Brock said.

"You're right. Kirlia wants to protect Gardevoir, and will help us in any way," Melodi said.

"This is the person who took Gardevoir," Melodi told Kirlia, holding the WANTED poster. "We need to know where she'll be going to hunt pokémon next."

_Kirlia's horns began to glow and a telepathic image of a house and a building with a waterwheel near a river by a waterfall appeared in everyone's minds. It showed Hunter J flying there on her Salamence._

"What's that?" May asked.

"An image of the future ascending telepathically," Melodi answered.

"So that's got to be where J's going to strike next." Brock confirmed.

_The image faded and Kirlia began to fall over from fatigue, but Melodi caught her._

"But wait. Do you know where that is?" Ash asked.

"No doubt." Officer Jenny answered. "There's a small hut and waterwheel right at the forest edge."

"So let's get over there right now!"

"With pleasure! Then she'll get what she deserves."

_Officer Jenny picked up the radio from her motorcycle._

"This is Jenny. I've determined the pokémon hunter's next strike point. I'll need to get that area completely surrounded."

"Hang in there Pikachu. I'm gettin' ya outta there right away!"

_Hanging up the radio, Officer Jenny turned to David._

"It will talk a while to get there, so we'll have plenty of time for questions."

"Great, so can you uncuff me from your motorcycle?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Well, if we're all going over there, Bianca is going to need a ride too. It would be easier for me to ride on Arcanine anyway."

"Aw, how sweet of you David," May said.

"Thank you David." Bianca said as David stepped out rubbing his wrist.

"I hope the noble gentleman isn't a criminal. That would ruin the 'white knight' image, wouldn't it?" Officer Jenny asked.

"Excuse me for taking note in preventing 'indecent exposure', Officer," David said low enough for only the two of them to hear. "It's much easier to prevent when sitting down, wouldn't you agree?" David asked, referring to Bianca's choice of clothing.

_With that he walked over and joined Brock and Ash on the back of Arcanine._

"_Maybe he's a real gentleman after all. He certainly has better control over himself than other men. I truly do hope he's not a criminal." Officer Jenny thought to herself as she got back on her motorcycle and the entire group made their way to the location of the telepathic image._

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**So next chapter we'll finally learn what happened to David after stepping into the Team Galactic helicopter that fateful day almost two years ago. As some of you might have noticed, I followed the plot of "Mutiny in the Bounty" pretty heavily. I did so to help set up David's reveal of the past and even though I will use the remainder of the episode it is purely to wrap up the event and move the plot along as a whole. In other news, my birthday is next month, that'll put me in good mood.**

**Review Replies:**

**Okamisu: ****Thank you, I will certainly try my hardest to keep this story as enjoyable as it has been.**

**PurpleRock: ****As shocking as it is, a lot can happen in two years. (Code for: I decided on that in order to keep diehard fans of Advanceshipping from vomiting at my terrible attempt. I might write out what they did in those two years when I get more experience in storywriting.)**

**Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: ****Thanks, but I still believe I was in the wrong. It's great to have the continued support.**

**Species Unknown: ****It shall be revealed next chapter. Isn't it exciting? I might and that to a motto of theirs. Nothing says relationship like humorous teasing does it? If there is one that is… Muhahaha.**

**Okamisu (second review listed on chapter one): ****You made such a persuasive argument I couldn't deny you. Here it is, as you requested.**

**David (Guest): ****… I'm mostly curious as to the reason behind the choosing of your name. If it's as obvious as I think it is then I'm flattered.**


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